Artists to Lead Bus Tours of L.A. Festival

In an attempt to guide the less adventurous who are uninspired by Los Angeles Festival director Peter Sellars’ invitation to “wade through five dreadful things to find one wonderful thing” in 600 Open Festival programs, organizers have planned 15 artist-guided bus tours to give audiences a sampling of the event’s “treasures.”

Called “99 Hours of Art,” the five- and six-hour tours each include three-to-five stops and four-to-eight different events ranging from comedy shows, art gallery tours and excerpts of full-length plays, to impromptu street performances, a participatory “gallery hum” and a round of artist-designed miniature golf.

In addition, “surprise events” are scheduled along the way, and each bus will have entertainment provided en route by “tour guides” including performance artists John Fleck and Beth Lapides, comedian Paul Krassner, neo-vaudeville entertainer Roy Johns, and children’s theater performers Ed Bender and Chris Craven.

“It’s almost like a little mini-festival,” said organizer Jan Ellenstein, noting that tours will be held each weekend of the festival Aug. 31-Sept. 17. “Instead of going to see one show in one place and then going home, it’s a way of getting an overview of the whole festival.”

The tours will depart from and return to the “Festival Club” at Bruno’s Ristorante at Venice and Centinela in West Los Angeles to give “tourists” a chance to mingle with artists from both the L.A. Festival and the Open Festival who are expected to converge at the club each evening.

Late night tours will be held on Fridays starting Aug. 31 from 10 p.m to 3 a.m. and Saturdays for three weekends beginning Sept. 1 from 7 p.m. to midnight. Sunday afternoon tours from noon to 5 p.m. are geared for families and Sunday evening bus tours are set from 7 p.m. to midnight.

Tours are $15; $10 for children. Reservations may be made through Theatix: (213) 466-1767.

“99 Hours of Art” grew out of the 1987 Fringe Festival’s popular “24 Hours of Art.”