Sawdust, now 50, tries keeping it fresh

They were considered rebels for organizing an alternative to Laguna Beach’s only summer art show at the time.

But in 1965, dissatisfied with the nearby Festival of Arts and its jury system, this small group of artists decided to start an unjuried art show.

So they set up in an open lot near Park Avenue and the Laguna Beach Library and garnered moderate success. But the following year, the group was unable to stage a festival because of weak leadership, leading to their effort becoming known as “The Rejects Festival.”

Things turned around in 1967, when new leaders came onboard and the artists found a dirt lot on North Coast Highway to host the second attempt at a new art festival. Sawdust was spread atop the dirt to keep the dust down, and the show was coined the Sawdust Festival.

The Sawdust, as it is often affectionately known, moved to its current 3-acre Laguna Canyon Road site in 1968.

As the curtain rises Friday on another Sawdust in the canyon, the festival celebrates its 50th year of promoting art created by Laguna Beach artists and craftsmen.

But before its inaugural show in the grove of shady eucalyptus, trouble brewed as board members argued that the show’s experimental art was too unconventional. Some artists then splintered from Sawdust and formed Art-A-Fair, completing Laguna’s trio of summer art festivals. It is also celebrating its 50th year.

To set up the site, Sawdust artists and artisans found wood panels and other materials at a junkyard and created booths to display their work for sale.

“Those years were pretty wild,” recalled jeweler Mike Heintz, a Sawdust regular since the 1973 show. “We didn’t have a lot of things. We were just a bunch of hippies with very primitive beginnings. We didn’t think that far ahead.”

No advertisements were placed in local papers for the first five years, and artists made sandwiches at home and sold them to visitors.

But that didn’t stop the crowds. Attendance grew in the early 1970s and continued to increase, reaching a high of over 325,000 visitors in 1978. The largest one-day crowd in Sawdust history reached 10,000 on a Sunday in July.

Today, the festival has 200 artists showing in 190 booths during a nine-week run that will eventually draw perhaps 300,000 people.

The show, which is still unjuried — artists are picked by seniority or by lottery — is now focused on welcoming the younger generation to continue its growth, said Sawdust President Jay Grant, whose wife, Nikki, has made jewelry from semi-precious stones and abalone shells to sell at Sawdust for 50 years.

Over the years, the festival added live entertainment, outdoor cafes, art demonstrations and studio art classes taught by professional artists to teach novices about mediums like hand-blown and fused glass, painting, jewelry, ceramics and more.

Grant, who has been associated with the festival for 46 years, also reestablished the festival’s fashion show, which was common in the 1970s but faded over the years as board members changed.

As much as the entertainment on festival grounds has evolved during the past few decades, it isn’t enough to draw the younger visitors, the artists say. While returning shoppers appreciate handmade goods, not so for the younger generations.

“Times have changed,” said designer Leslie Edler, owner of Flamingo Jewelry, who has showcased for 44 consecutive summers at Sawdust. “Today’s young people want electronics.”

She noted, however, that they still appreciate the ambiance. “It’s a special place,” Edler said. “It’s like magic. It’s different.”

To Sawdust artists who exhibited at the festival in its formative years, showing at Sawdust was a way to make a living while mastering their artistic techniques.

“The whole scene was always exciting and fun,” said mixed-media artist Tom Belloni, who has shown at Sawdust since 1971. “It became a lifestyle that was healthy for me and for my family, and it continues to be to this day.”

That tight-knit community of artists supporting each other and their crafts, Heintz said, extends to those in need through the Artists’ Benevolence Fund.

In 1987, when a Sawdust Festival artist fell ill, Heintz helped organize a fund that would provide financial assistance to artists living in Laguna Beach who had suffered a catastrophic event leaving them unable to work. With a $1,000 maximum monthly grant, the fund has awarded over $100,000 in relief to artists in their times of need.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary, Grant said the festival will install several additions to the grounds, including a 1970s VW bus painted by an artist, a water fountain, an interactive chalk board and a glass sculpture by the waterfall.

Guests can also look forward to a new mural, retro posters and additional variety acts.

But the real special scene of the festival are the artists creating hand works to please the eye and stir emotions, particularly to the people who have found the festival nostalgic.

“They come back to touch on their old days and they get so sentimental,” said Belloni, as he sat at a table with fellow veteran Sawdust exhibitors.

“It’s 50 years of someone’s life to come back to and revisit,” Heintz said. “We were just a bunch of kids.”

“Hey,” Edler said. “We still are.”

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What: Sawdust Art Festival

When: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily Friday through Aug. 28

Where: 935 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach

Cost: Adults, $9; seniors, $7; ages 6 to 12, $4; 5 and younger, free

Information: (949) 494-3030; sawdustartfestival.org

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Kathleen Luppi, kathleen.luppi@latimes.com

Twitter: @KathleenLuppi