Festival ’90 : FAMILY ADVENTURES : Free events focus on outdoor fun over three weekends at Angel’s Gate, Griffith Park and Santa Monica Pier

To Los Angeles Festival Director Peter Sellars, this is precisely how to experience the Around Town part of the festival, three weekends packed with dancing, singing and performances that tie the entire event together: “Bring your friends and family, bring a blanket to sit on, and get ready for an explosion of pure concentrated fun.”

The first Around Town event kicks the festival off at Angel’s Gate and Point Fermin Park over Labor Day weekend, the next is the weekend of Sept. 6-9 at Griffith Park and the last, Sept. 15-16, centers around festivities at Santa Monica Pier.

The weekends provide a way to spend entire days L.A. Festival-style, days of non-stop cultural enjoyment. A highlight of the summertime weekends, Sellars says, is that art will be popping up in outdoor locations around the city. Another big draw: The majority of weekend events are free. But most important, according to Sellars, the weekends are the essence of the festival.

“They’re the meaning of the festival, the heart of the whole thing. The heart of what we mean by democratic art. The heart of what we mean by ‘art for everyone, all ages, all people,’ ” Sellars says. “It’s about trying to remove as much of the starch as possible from a cultural experience. It’s not a formal thing where you have to sit in row 36J for an entire evening and behave. It’s just there, in front of you, to experience.”

But despite the informal, earthy quality of the weekends, Sellars emphasizes that this is not your typical Labor Day band/parade/barbeque fare. “It’s incredibly high-class culture. The amazing thing is you’re seeing and mingling with some of the greatest artists in the world in a completely alfresco environment where it’s not a big deal, it’s just living.”

Indeed, there will be a whirlwind of activity throughout the weekends. During the first, there will be a two-day Pan-Indian Powwow complete with Indian fry bread, dancing and music. On Labor Day, Pacific Islanders will hold a Kava ceremony, a formal ritual in which everyone can drink native root beverage from a large wooden Kava bowl.

Sellars says that participation is a key ingredient and, he hopes, “audience and performer blend together.” Sellars wants viewers to get up and dance, or join in song when they see the various acts from the Cahuilla Bird Singers to the Cambodian musicians to the salsa tunes of Rudy Regalado and Chevere Band.

Festival organizers also planned the weekends with cultural activity in different parts of the city. Although centered at Angel’s Gate, the first weekend takes festival visitors to the African Marketplace, where the dancers of Wallis and Futuna will perform along with aboriginal Australians from Mornington Island, taiko drummers and gospel choirs. Children can learn about traditional handicrafts, and audiences can eat Afro-ethnic cuisine.

Labor Day weekend also takes festival-goers to Olvera Street, where the circuslike Bread and Puppet Theater will join Veracruz harpists and Guatemalan marimba bands to entertain the audience. On Sunday, celebrate the Moon Festival in Chinatown, complete with parade and ending with an evening of moon-viewing.

The second weekend of the festival brings participants to Griffith Park for more music and dance from traditional folklorico from Floricanto Dance Theater to the upbeat sounds of mariachi bands at the Mariachi Festival on Sept. 8. Throughout the second weekend, Los Angeles theater director Reza Abdoh presents “Pisadas en la Obscuridad,” (“Footsteps in the Dark”) at Jack’s Placita, a Latin hot spot.

The final weekend offers cultural activity at the Santa Monica Pier. During the day, there will be dancing and singing and Japanese-inspired processions along the stage-by-the-sea by the Gujo Hachiman Dancers.

To Sellars, the outdoor atmosphere is essential. “It’s about aroma, about connecting to the earth. It’s also about the pace of nature. Part of dancing and singing is birds flying around and the sun moving through the sky,” he says. “It’s the whole thing about being plugged into the environment.”

While bringing a Pacific Rim feeling to these locations, Sellars hopes the weekends will lead residents of L.A. to places they have never been before. And when they get there, he says, people will be pleasantly surprised.

He calls Angel’s Gate one of the “jewels of the county” because of its physical beauty.

As for the African Marketplace: “People wouldn’t know how to begin to get to South-Central L.A., and we’re suggesting the way to begin is the African Marketplace, which is full of energy, costumes, food. . . . It is one of the most ringing positive statements about L.A.”

In addition, the programs will bring Angelenos to the city’s more offbeat hot spots, like Jack’s Placita. An elaborate bus system will provide transportation to and from the different weekend locales.

Sellars resists choosing weekend highlights, but says the children’s programming will be particularly special. In general, weekends will concentrate on families. One act he singles out is the Children of Bali. “This isn’t just kiddie stuff. It’s for all ages. I defy anyone to resist it.”