Promoter Agrees to Scale Down Fair at Pierce

A show promoter who once promised to present the San Fernando Valley’s largest and most spectacular fair next June at Pierce College said Friday he opted for a scaled-down version to please college administrators and peeved homeowners.

The promoter, Bruce Greene, agreed to eliminate the circus and adult carnival rides that he had hoped would attract 100,000 spectators to the Fiddle-Dee-Dee Jamboree Fair and Exposition June 22-24. The smaller event will still feature several of the attractions originally promised--a petting zoo, booths for crafts and games, and hayrides, Greene said.

“The negotiations put us up against the wall, but I think this is going to work out for everyone,” said Greene, who is president of Southern California Expos, a Granada Hills-based show and exhibition company.

“Hopefully, the homeowners will be happy. We just want to prove that we can put on a quality event.”

Greene said area homeowners opposed the scope of the fair, saying that traffic congestion and large, noisy crowds would spill into their residential neighborhoods. Pierce College administrators said plans for the fair had outgrown the original concept.

They said they felt the fair should have a more educational element.

Greene at first complained, saying that he had signed a contract with Los Angeles Community College trustees that allowed him to control the fair. He said college administrators were aware of the fair’s scope, so he was upset when they ordered him to cut back.

“They told me I might be able to save it as an art festival,” Greene said during an interview in November. “You can’t draw people to an art festival, especially when I’ve been telling exhibitors that this was going to be the greatest show in San Fernando Valley history.”

Greene is more philosophical these days about the conflict. “It’s more of a disillusionment than a disappointment,” he said. “It’s not right when someone signs a contract with you, then says they’re not going to honor it because some homeowners started screaming.

“But the show must go on. It’s still going to be a large and spectacular show. It just won’t be as noisy.

“We’re going to have more entertainment and more booths for exhibitions. We’re going to have 90 hours of continuous entertainment on three stages. There’s also going to be more booths for nonprofit groups. And we’re contacting the Museum of Natural History and the Los Angeles Observatory to see if they want to set up booths.”

Bob Gross of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization said the group was pleased with the revisions. “We feel now that it’s a function that’s more appropriate for a college setting,” he said.

Campus officials earlier this year rejected a proposal by the governing board of the San Fernando Valley Fair to hold that event on school grounds, even though the board scaled down the fair.

College trustees said the fair’s educational benefits did not outweigh the negative impact of noise and traffic.