Street Fair Paved With Food, Fun, Frolickers

More than 75,000 people packed the 16th Annual Orange International Street Fair on Saturday, downing food and drinks representing more than a dozen nations.

More than 200 vendors peddled everything from erasable tattoos to stained-glass windows, as well as plenty of bratwurst, fajitas, falafel and other ethnic cuisine.

“The crowd is looking about true to form, in fact, a little more of a crowd than last year,” said Kathy Hyland, vice president of the fair. The fair will probably top its usual 400,000 attendance for the three-day weekend, she added.

In the heat of the day, Independence Savings on Chapman Avenue flashed 96 degrees.

“But it is more humid than usual,” said Russ Barrios, a fair official. “That’s good for beer sales.”

Although sales were down this year at the Norwegian beer booth, operator Larry Einar Tannas wasn’t too worried.

“Tonight there’ll be hardly any room to walk,” Tannas said. “We have 700 cases we expect to sell. We had 500 cases last year and we sold out.”

Faucet an Attraction

A faucet on the side of a building also attracted a few customers.

“This is the best find all day,” Sue Rubin of Laguna Hills said as she took handfuls of water and splashed her arms and legs.

“They turned it on first,and I dove right in,” she said, pointing at Larry and Nancy Temes of Garden Grove, who have been coming to the street fair for eight years.

“We just come to look at everything and people-watch,” Larry Temes said. “It’s amazing what’s out on the streets these days.”

Most tried to beat the heat by standing in the shade and listening to the various bands playing throughout the fair.

Rancho Santiago College representatives handed out cardboard fans and visors with information about the college printed on them.

At their booths, Orange County Democrats and Republicans were registering voters. Those manning the booths said they were told not to distribute political literature or discuss politics with fair-goers.

The fair committee decided last month to bar the Orange County chapter of Amnesty International from the event. Amnesty International, a group that works to free political prisoners throughout the world, was considered a “special-interest group” by the committee, whose president said the group would clash with the fair’s “hometown camaraderie of neighbors.”

“We were told not to campaign,” said Mary Lou Musselwhite, a spokeswoman for the Republican Women’s Federated in Orange, which was running the Republican booth.

Democratic Party volunteers said fair officials almost closed down their booth.

“We had a (poster) up for state Sen. Cecil Green (D-Norwalk), who is an incumbent up for reelection, and (fair officials) told us we either take it down or we don’t open tomorrow,” Bob Mues said.