Dancing in the Park Begins San Juan’s Festival of Swallows

It keeps getting bigger and bigger. What once was a small, one-day family affair to welcome the swallows back to San Juan Capistrano has become a monthlong festival attracting people from all over the country.

Just ask 60-year-old Virginia Meadows, who has lived all her life in a little yellow house across the street from the San Juan Capistrano Mission, where the swallows make their yearly appearance March 19.

“It’s really getting so commercialized,” she said. “Now it’s on national news: ABC, NBC, CBS--and there’s too many people.” But, she said, “you can’t stop progress, I guess.”

Still, Meadows put on her dancing shoes Saturday and joined fellow dancers from the Sea Side Cloggers Alumni Troupe performing to the tune of “Good Ol’ Mountain Dew” as about 1,500 people came to Russell Cook Park to launch the city’s Fiesta de las Golondrinas (Celebration of the Swallows).

The clog dancers were just one of the attractions at Saturday’s fair, the first of many events between now and March 27. As dozens of families clapped to the clog dancers’ beat, others roamed the game and food booths that surrounded the park like a circle of wagons.

The fair, with Aztec dancers, rock ‘n’ roll bands, balloons, hot dogs and chili, was organized by the city and paid for by local businesses. Booths were manned by members of nonprofit organizations.

Ben Gunther, 5, pulled his father’s sleeve as they passed the ring-throwing game booth. “I want to try it,” Ben said with determination, pulling a leather wallet from his back pocket.

As his father watched, Ben invested the last dollar he had earned for doing family chores into three chances to win a poster, and on Saturday he would not be denied. With his second toss he circled a prize and triumphantly stalked away with it.

The homemade chili served at a nearby booth even satisfied the palate of Ana Mary Brinkley, 75, who had come from Oklahoma to visit relatives and see swallows for the first time.

“This is good chili,” she said. “It’s every bit as good as Oklahoma chili.”

While most participants seemed to enjoy the festival, some longtime residents were nostalgic.

“The swallows still come down to the mission, but not like they used to,” said Justine Shaw, 40. “There’s so many people now, the streets are so crowded. . . . I see more swallows in my back yard.”

And Meadows recalled the years when the tolling of the mission bells would awaken her on the morning of March 19. The birds would rest in orange groves, now replaced by buildings, and the church’s chimes would play “When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano.”

“I remember when I was small, you could really see the swallows arrive,” she said. “But now, due to the fact that there are so many new buildings, (the swallows) can’t find any mud for their nests, so they go somewhere else.”