L.A. Fest Opens Today: It’s a Happening : Guide: More than 2,000 artists from 21 countries are participating in the 17-day festival, which explores the art and culture of Pacific Rim nations. Events will be held at 230 sites. About 70% of the performances are free.

First, there was the name: “The Los Angeles Festival.” This begged the question: “The Los Angeles Festival of what ?”

Then was born The Program That No One Could Read. The festival’s hip, exotic, provocative and bright-hued program/ticket guide features cosmic essays on art, life and culture in dark letters over dark backgrounds, while little details like times, dates and places are cleverly disguised.

Then came the festival banners, which recently appeared around the Los Angeles area and look like giant postage stamps from Mars. In fact, they look just like the program--only bigger.

But today, after months of financial struggling, the Los Angeles Festival is officially opening. Beginning at 10 a.m. with an all-day seaside celebration at San Pedro’s Point Fermin/Angel’s Gate Park, for the next 16 days the L.A. area will be engulfed in a huge artistic and cultural experiment. About 100,000 visitors are expected at the parks over the three-day Labor Day weekend.

The idea, say festival planners, is to simply let the Los Angeles Festival happen to you--to become an eager cultural sponge soaking up the sights and sounds of 21 countries, representing 1,400 artists from the Pacific Rim plus 800 more from Los Angeles. The approach, they suggest, is spontaneity, receptivity, experimentation and participation.

But for those to whom the phrase letting it happen conjures up images of freeway accidents, the following is a guide to unraveling the mystery of Los Angeles Festival 1990.

WHEN IS IT? Sept.1-17.

WHAT IS IT?: A celebration of the arts of the Pacific.

WHERE’S THIS PACIFIC?: Commonly called the Pacific Rim (those countries which rim the Pacific Ocean), the Pacific includes all our neighbors along the ocean--and beyond. The Pacific Rim phrase has become something of a buzzword for Los Angeles in the 1990s, because that’s the area from which most of the city’s immigrants hail, as well as the cultures experts predict will explode onto the American scene in upcoming decades. The festival celebrates Asian, Pacific, and Latino art and culture. Some of the areas include: Mexico, El Salvador, Peru, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Colombia, the Philippines, Canada, Cambodia, Hawaii, Indonesia, Korea, China, Tonga, Japan, India, Samoa, Vietnam, New Zealand, Polynesia, Thailand, Australia and Laos.

WHAT IS ITS HISTORY?: The Los Angeles Festival is an offshoot of the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival. The first Los Angeles Festival was held in 1987, celebrating the arts of Europe; this is Los Angeles’ first attempt to explore the other half of the world. Festival director Peter Sellars sees the Los Angeles Festival as a 10-year project, focusing on a different area of the world each year. Next year, he has said the festival will focus on Africa and the Middle East.

IS THIS FESTIVAL DANCE OR MUSIC OR WHAT?: A little of everything. Dance, ancient rituals, American Indian powwows, theater, performance art, video, visual arts, processions, puppets (giant, miniature, shadow), musicians, children’s entertainment and food from 80 countries.

WHERE IS IT?: Everywhere. festival events take place at 230 different locations. Theaters, galleries, temples, lofts, storefronts, parks, streets, piers, gardens, college campuses and even a Santa Monica Air Center hangar will be host to events.

However, the main events take place on weekends at three locations: Point Fermin/Angel’s Gate Park for the Labor Day weekend; Griffith Park Sept. 8-9 and Santa Monica Pier Sept. 15-16.

DO I HAVE TO PAY TO GET IN?: About 70% of festival events are free. Thirty percent are ticketed performances. For information on festival events, call (213) 688-ARTS; for ticket information call (213) 623-7400.

HOW DO I GET THERE?: Besides your car, special city bus routes have been added for weekends (call 1-800-2LA-RIDE for information). At Point Fermin/Angel’s Gate Park, signs from the freeway will direct you to parking sites, and shuttle buses--complete with live entertainers aboard--will take you to festival grounds.

CAN I WATCH IT ON TV?: Sort of. On weekdays, public broadcasting station KCET Channel 28 has a special series of late-night festival-related programming. KCET also just added repeats of “Los Angeles Festival: An Explorer’s Guide,” a half-hour featuring Sellars explaining the event, at 6 p.m. tonight, 10:30 a.m. Sunday and midnight Wednesday

WHAT’S HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND?: The festival officially begins at 10 a.m. with a Native American blessing and gift ceremony involving 186 performers from around the world--but this is not open to the public. Festival officials says the public need not arrive earlier than 11 a.m., when the Vendors Village, featuring crafts and food booths representing 80 countries, open.

At noon, the public events officially begin with the ringing of the park’s Korean Peace Bell. After that ceremony, a 45-minute artists procession takes place to Point Fermin Park’s Pacific Stage. Taking part are the Woomera Mornington Islanders of Australia; the Wallis & Futuna Music and Dance Group; New Mexico’s Jemez Pueblo Matachines; Korea’s Chindo Shamans; California’s Cahuilla Bird Singers and the King Island Inupiat Singers and Dancers.

From 1-6 p.m., the parks will host a “spiritual jam session” featuring 25 groups which also offer individual performances throughout the park. Open Festival events begin at nearby Wilder Park at 12:30 p.m. The parks close at dusk.

Other highlights of the Labor Day weekend include Sunday’s Moon Festival in Chinatown (free); various performances Saturday and Sunday at the African Marketplace at Rancho Cienega Park and various performances Sunday on Olvera Street. And the Korean shamans, ritual healers from Korea’s Chindo Islands, have added a performance at Pacific Asia Museum Monday at 1 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at Koreatown Plaza.