‘The community of artists here has been improving and becoming world class over the last decade.’--Aaron Paley, Open Festival coordinator : L.A. Festival to Get Under Way at Angels Gate

When the first Los Angeles Festival was held three years ago, the South Bay had a small share of the activities.

But when the second festival opens over the Labor Day Weekend, the South Bay will be a center of attention.

The festival, a celebration of Pacific Rim cultures including Asia, the Pacific islands, Latin America and the Far North, will officially open Saturday at the Korean Peace Bell at Angels Gate Park in San Pedro. The first weekend of festival programs will take place at Angels Gate and nearby Point Fermin and Wilder parks.

More than 1,400 leading artists from 21 nations will present traditional and experimental dance, theater, music, visual art, literature, film and video before the festival ends Sept. 16. Seventy percent of the events are free.

The South Bay will also host at least 21 events--ranging from an arts and crafts festival to art and photo exhibits to theater, ballet and performance art--in the Open Festival, which is an adjunct to the main festival.

Any artist wishing to produce an event was able to participate in the Open Festival, in contrast to the main Los Angeles Festival, where artists could participate only by invitation. Aaron Paley, Open Festival coordinator, said the programs “help focus attention on the local community, while the attention of the city is focused on the arts.”

The concept was born with the Fringe Festival held during the 1987 Los Angeles Festival, Paley said. “The local community of artists felt they weren’t being effectively represented in the festival” and organized their own, he said.

This year, however, the Open Festival has taken its place alongside the main festival, in recognition that “the community of artists here has been improving and becoming world class over the last decade,” Paley said.

Saturday’s opening of the festival will be marked by the ringing of the Korean Peace Bell, which was given to the city of Los Angeles by the Korean government in honor of the 1976 U.S. Bicentennial. Following will be a colorful quarter-mile procession of artists in native costumes to Point Fermin Park.

For the three days of events in San Pedro, festival grounds will open at noon, closing at 7 p.m. on Saturday and at 6 p.m. on Sunday and Sept. 3, which is Labor Day. There will be seven performance areas.

Attractions include singers and dancers from French Polynesia, Inupiat music and dance from Alaska, ritual dance from the Jemez Pueblo in New Mexico, Australian Aboriginal music and dance, and ancient Hawaiian hulas.

Local groups will perform blues and salsa music, gospel songs, Mexican folklorico dances, Andean folk music and Tongan music and dance.

Singers, hoop dancers and music will highlight a Native American Powwow scheduled for Sunday and Labor Day. The audience will be invited to take part in some events.

Streets in the festival area will be closed to traffic during the events, but free parking and shuttle transportation are being provided from two parking lots. There also will be an internal bus system to take people to the hill portion of Angels Gate Park.

Parking will be available at Port of Los Angeles Berth 87, First Street and Harbor Boulevard, and at White Point Park, Western Avenue and Paseo del Mar. Shuttle buses will run between the parking lots and the festival every three minutes. Hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. all three days.

People are being encouraged to leave their cars at home and take public transportation to San Pedro for the festival. Information about service is available at (800) 2LA RIDE.

The Open Festival events in the South Bay also get under way Labor Day Weekend. Following are some highlights:

* Paintings, drawings, photographs and other works by 42 artists will be hung in the windows of retail shops and businesses in a two-block stretch of 6th Street between Pacific Avenue and Centre Street in San Pedro. The works will be on view for the duration of the Los Angeles Festival.

Called “Open Windows San Pedro,” the show is produced by the Harbor Arts Alliance to make the public “more aware of the number of artists and the quality of art being produced in the harbor area,” according to alliance chairman Kathleen Lawrence.

* The annual Labor Day Weekend Fiesta de los Artes in Hermosa Beach is being presented as an Open Festival event this year. Handcrafted jewelry, ceramics, woodwork, handblown glass, as well as paintings and watercolors, will be featured in more than 400 booths Saturday through Labor Day from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Pier and Hermosa avenues.

An international food pavilion will offer delicacies from all over the world and entertainment will range from zydeco party music and belly dancing to pony rides for children. Parking will be available at Mira Costa High School, Artesia Boulevard and Peck Avenue. Shuttle rides from the high school to the fiesta cost $1.

* “Loudmouth Chowder,” a one-woman black comedy, opens Saturday at 8 p.m. at Angels Gate Cultural Center, 3601 S. Gaffey St., in San Pedro. It tells the story of a struggling young actress who journeys home to New England for her parents’ funeral, encountering a few odd characters along the way. It will play Fridays through Sundays until Sept. 16. Admission is $10, $8.50 for students, seniors and cultural center members.

Written by Joanne Green-Levine and Melanie Jones, the show is performed by Green-Levine under Jones’ direction. The two women combined anecdotes from their lives, people they have known and fictional elements to create the piece about a woman’s determination to survive and succeed. “Loudmouth Chowder” is a Cape Cod expression for a martini.

* A group called Urbanites Evolve! will transform a large World War I mortar bunker at Angels Gate into a performance area for dancers, musicians and visual artists on Saturday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 2 p.m.

The audience will be led into the bunker from the nearby Angels Gate Art Gallery for what director Jennie Webb describes as surrealistic comedies and ceremonial vignettes about environmental dangers. The performance piece, featuring a cast of 21, targets malathion spraying, pesticides, the greenhouse effect and other environmental controversies. “We’re creating an Earth awareness while still having fun,” Webb said. Admission is free.

* Poetry focusing on self-esteem and such social problems as child abuse will be combined with music and dance in a San Pedro concert Sept. 8 at 8 p.m. at the Warner Grand Theatre, 478 W. 6th St. Admission is $10.

Poets will read original works as dancers interpret the emotions evoked by the imagery. Dancers also will speak some of the poetry as they move. Music will be performed by sitar player Rahul Sariputra, guitarist William Davila and Prahesh Khan, who plays tabla drums.

* The Shanghai Acrobats and the Imperial Warriors of the Peking Opera will present performances Sept. 11 and 12 at 8 p.m. at the Warner Grand. Admission Sept. 11 is $10 and $20; the Sept. 12 performance is a $25 benefit.

The acrobats, formed in 1951, entertain audiences with stunts such as jar juggling and their tower of chairs. The imperial warriors will perform four Peking Opera martial arts sequences with elaborate costumes and makeup.

* In “Mutant Vaudevillians,” performance artist Zoot dons distorted costumes and uses mime, dance, music and dialogue to make his points about safe sex, nuclear disaster, alcoholism and other social issues. The performance will be Sept. 14 at 8 p.m. at the Warner Grand. Admission is $10, $7 for students and seniors.

Zoot tackles racism and culture shock in the guise of a white CPA who turns into a rapper at night, and a glowing 12-foot skeleton that sings and dances reflects the horrors of nuclear war. Zoot said his satirical show “is like ‘Saturday Night Live’ if it were a vaudeville show.”

* The Palos Verdes Ballet will perform “Giselle” Sept. 15 at 8 p.m. and Sept. 16 at 2 p.m. at the Norris Theatre for the Performing Arts, Crossfield Drive and Indian Peak Road, Rolling Hills Estates. Admission is $20. Children under 12 may attend the matinee performance for $10.

The ballet company will be joined by guest stars Alla Khaniashvili-Artiushkina and Vitaly Artiushkin, principal dancers of Russia’s Bolshoi Ballet.

The plethora of Los Angeles Festival and Open Festival events in the South Bay underscores the growth of the arts in the community, according to some associated with the festival.

“That part of town is emerging as a major cultural center,” said Open Festival coordinator Paley.

Raymond Howell, owner of the 1930s-era Warner Grand, said the events are a tribute to an atmosphere that a variety of arts organizations have created.

“The artists are here,” he said.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS: B10.