Pacifica Festival Waits in Vain for Tide to Come

The organizers of a Pacific Rim music and arts festival, who had hoped to build it into an annual event of nationwide stature, acknowledged Monday that the public response to their weekend festival in Woodland Hills fell far below expectations.

Scarcely a third of the 15,000 patrons expected showed up for the two-day Pacifica festival in Warner Park, which featured music, dance, crafts and food representing the cultures of countries bordering the Pacific Ocean, from Japan to Peru.

Poor attendance prompted some vendors to pull out of the festival, whereas others’ complaints to management led to an impromptu reduction of the $4 admission fee. One concessionaire even yelled at an official until a few people were let in free during the event’s closing moments.

Optimism Voiced

But leaders of the San Fernando Valley Cultural Foundation, which sponsored the $85,000 festival, remained optimistic Monday in spite of the confusion and dissent. The foundation is attempting to raise millions of dollars to build performing-arts complexes in Warner Park and the Sepulveda Basin.

The group first held its festival in 1985 and resumed it this year, announcing a goal of building it over the next few years into the nation’s premier festival of music and dance of the Pacific Rim.

“We’re ecstatic,” a fund-raiser for the organization said after learning that admission receipts would cover expenses not already met by fees from vendors and $61,500 in contributions from Valley firms.

But no one else was ecstatic about the $4 admission fee or the cyclone fence erected around the 70-acre park to keep out the non-paying public.

Residents of the area, already unhappy about the foundation’s plan to build a performing-arts complex in the park, bristled when the fence went up, barring access to what they consider a neighborhood park.

“We have always been opposed to that being anything other than a greenbelt park,” said Gordon Murley, president of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization. “It follows along that we do not like to see that fenced off.”

Many nearby residents apparently boycotted the event.

“We expected it to be a flop because the people I talk to were not about to go and pay admission,” Woodland Hills homeowner Dorothy Wood said. “They were really annoyed about being kept out of the park.”

During much of the day Saturday, food vendors, who paid $350 for their booths, and craftsmen, who paid $100, passed their time watching the few people walking by.

When attendance had hardly climbed over 1,000 by midday, several pulled out, leaving empty booths behind. Saturday evening, a group of those who remained held a stormy meeting with the festival organizers to demand that the fence come down.

Instead, the management dropped the admission charge to $2 Sunday morning. Later in the day, the price fell again, to $1.

Meanwhile, inside the fence, an audience that seldom reached more than 200 persevered under a relentless sun to watch a colorful lineup of music and dance.

They heard local ethnic musicians and dancers and foreign groups, such as the Wakea Maori Cultural Dance Company from New Zealand.

Sunday morning, two square, white tent covers had been set up. Most of the audience crowded under the tiny shelter, the rest dotting the expanse of the park wherever the shade of a dozen small trees fell.

Attendance picked up through Sunday, and eventually was almost double the Saturday crowd. It was too late, however, to satisfy the merchants, many of whom said they lost money.

About 5 p.m. Sunday, one agitated seller of harps rushed to a gate near his booth after seeing a guard turn away a group of elderly women.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” he shouted. “An hour before the end, and you’re turning away senior citizens?”

Shortly after that, the gates were opened.

But the merchant, flashing a letter from the foundation predicting attendance of up to 15,000, said he planned to go to small claims court to recover his fees. The foundation had promised a major advertising campaign that never materialized, he said, calling it “the most poorly run festival I’ve ever been associated with.”

Madeleine Landry, executive director of the foundation, blamed a public relations firm hired to promote the festival.

Too Much Expected

The publicist, however, said the foundation was expecting too much.

“They expected that the ethnic communities were going to show up,” said Constance Stone of Stone/Hallinan Inc. of Los Angeles. “It is very difficult to move people out of the Los Angeles Basin into the Valley.”

On the other hand, the vendors and organizers found themselves in agreement on the excellence of the cultural performances.

“I thought that the performances were brilliant, and the people who were there loved it,” Stone said. “With any luck the next time, it will be very successful.”

Linda Kinnee, a fund-raising consultant for the foundation, said the organization’s executive leadership thinks so, too. “This is a long-term investment,” she said.

Although the organization’s board will eventually make the decision, Kinnee said the staff had concluded that it would be better to obtain advance funding for the next festival and make it free.

“The thing is not a fund-raiser,” Kinnee said. “It’s meant to provide service to the community, to put something back to the community.”