The Last Weekend: Pier Groups : Ocean venue: The biggest crowds yet are expected in Santa Monica. Bread and Puppet Theatre, Gran Circo Teatro de Chile are featured.

While performances continue around the Southland during the festival’s final weekend, the biggest events--and the biggest crowds--are expected to descend on Santa Monica Pier today and Sunday.

Performances this weekend begin at noon today with a procession by the larger-than-life puppets of Vermont’s Bread and Puppet Theatre and end Sunday with a 7 p.m. presentation of the bon odori, a re-creation of Japan’s largest folk dance event that takes place each year in Gujo Hachiman, a small town on Japan’s central island.

Bon refers to the celebration for ancestral spirits, a 400-year tradition. Odori means dancing--in which the audience will be invited to join.

At the previous two weekend festival sites--San Pedro’s Point Fermin/Angel’s Gate Park and Griffith Park--artists had the luxury of spreading their performances throughout the parks. This weekend, festival-goers will pack in at the foot of the pier, where three performance stages--the Main Stage, the Chilean Stage and the traditional Japanese yakata for the Gujo Hachiman troupe--have been erected.

“It’s small--and that’s going to be the largest crowd too,” said Tom Larson, the festival’s production director. “The Main Stage area can only hold about 15,000 maximum, and the (Chilean) theater holds only about 500. But we’ve got (a new act) on the Main Stage every 45 minutes. That will keep people moving.”

Elaine Mutchnik, operations manager for the Santa Monica Pier Restoration Corp., said the sweltering heat that kept some people away from last Sunday’s Griffith Park festivities could increase this weekend’s attendance as crowds seek the relief of cool sea breezes.

But handling crowds won’t be a problem at the pier, according to Mutchnik and the Santa Monica Police Department. Police Sgt. Walter Hard said Larson’s estimate that 100,000 could visit the pier over the weekend--both regular visitors and festival-goers--is probably higher than actual attendance will be. (Mutchnik and Hard said the pier usually draws about 25,000 to 35,000 on an ordinary summer weekend.)

Even if 100,000 show up, added Hard, Santa Monica should be able to handle it. The pier’s most popular annual event, the Independence Day fireworks, routinely draws a crowd of 250,000. Not everybody watches the fireworks from the pier itself, however.

Unlike previous festival weekends, visitors must fend for themselves when it comes to parking. At Point Fermin/Angel’s Gate, shuttle buses ferried drivers from free parking areas to the festival site; in Santa Monica, festival officials say local parking lots and street parking should suffice.

Some 60 vendor booths, featuring food and crafts of many countries, will also take up residence in the Vendors Village on the pier (it will be business as usual for the pier’s regular vendors, said Hard). The festival ran into an unexpected glitch here, however--those booths considered “commercial” had to pay a $150 fee to market their wares on the pier. There was no such fee at the other weekend festival locations.

Today’s performers include the Zydeco Party Band, the Ellis Island Klezmer Band, the Keshet Chaim Dancers and the Chaksam-Pa/Tibetan Dance and Opera. Sunday events include Zoot, House of Games, New Pacific, Open Channel, Kinnara Taiko and the Wonderworld Puppets. On both days, El Gran Circo Teatro de Chile will present ticketed performances at the Chilean Theater.