South Coast Plaza Festival Takes On British Accent : Celebration: Officials at Costa Mesa mall launch four-month festival celebrating British culture and commerce.

South Coast Plaza is preparing to adopt a British accent.

Plaza officials joined members of the British government, local arts luminaries and civic leaders Tuesday in kicking off the Festival of Britain, a four-month celebration of British culture and commerce that culminates in October with three weeks of festivities at the Costa Mesa shopping mall.

Reg Holloway, British consul general in Los Angeles, said the festival is the biggest event sponsored by the British government in North America this year.

“Originally the idea was for a retail promotion based in South Coast Plaza, but the festival has grown to something bigger,” Holloway said. “It seemed to blossom on its own. It was a festival waiting to happen.”

A succession of speakers wearing understated Festival of Britain lapel pins spoke to reporters and guests. Among the guests were Costa Mesa Mayor Peter F. Buffa and Henry T. Segerstrom, developer and part-owner of South Coast Plaza.

The big announcement of the day was that a member of the British royal family--probably Princess Alexandria, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth II--will visit at some time during the festival.

As part of the festival, Saks Fifth Avenue is planning an invitation-only cocktail party and fashion show. Great Britain’s Chelsea Crafts and Flower Show will be re-created at the shopping center. A display of coronation robes spanning 300 years is planned, as is an exhibition of more than 150 art and design objects dating from 1790 to the present from London’s Victoria & Albert Museum.

In mid-October, the shopping center will host a Renaissance Faire with court jesters and musicians celebrating old England, and a British classic car show.

British fashion designer Zandra Rhodes and hologram photographer Alexander are expected to make appearances at the shopping center.

Brochures, banners, flags and hang tags for merchandise imported from Great Britain are being designed for the event.

Peter Devin, store manager of Nordstrom and co-chairman of the retail section of the festival, said 1.6 million people are expected during the three weeks of the festival.

South Coast Plaza general manager Jim Henwood said it is too early to tell how much business the festival will generate for the mall, which holds eight anchor stores and more than 200 smaller outlets.

Among the groups performing in the festival are Britain’s D’Oyly Carte Opera Company and the London Classical Players. Local participants include South Coast Repertory, Pacific Symphony, Grove Shakespeare Festival and the Laguna Art Museum.

Seminars about technology exchange and investing in the European Community, an economic cooperative of European states to be formed in 1992, will be held at UC Irvine and at Chapman College.

On the arts and community side, the festival committee is contributing about $1 million to the events, and various arts groups are contributing another $1 million, Houlton said.

Major sponsors are the city of Costa Mesa, Virgin Atlantic Airways, the British Council and the British government through the consul general in Los Angeles. South Coast Plaza is among the other contributors.

Sarah Stack, a retail analyst with the Los Angeles investment firm Bateman Eichler, Hill Richards, said she has heard of individual stores, but not entire shopping centers, adopting a country as a promotional tool. She said British goods will sell especially well in this area. “In Southern California, for some reason, there is a lot of interest in England and English products,” she said. “People associate quality and craftsmanship with the products.”

Although little mention was made of it Tuesday, the Festival of Britain has a predecessor. In 1972, South Coast Plaza held a small retail festival that never blossomed the way the current one has to include arts and community events.

John Houlton, vice consul for the British government in Los Angeles, said this festival was supposed to have been a revival of the 1972 event. But as Orange County has changed, so has the scope of the festival. “Orange County is so much bigger in all senses,” said Houlton, who was also involved in the 1972 festival. “More cosmopolitan is a good way to put it.”

-- Times staff writer Rick VanderKnyff contributed to this article.