O.C. Groups Have Some Beefs About Festival : Arts: Too little publicity and too many participating organizations marred the L.A.’s 17-day gala, say local participants.

In the aftermath of the Los Angeles Festival, which ended Sunday, Orange County groups that participated in it largely agreed that their involvement was worthwhile, but several had reservations about aspects of the event.

All presentations in the Aug.31 through Sept. 16 arts gala celebrating Pacific Rim culture were held in Los Angeles County. Festival attendance figures had not been released by Tuesday morning.

Crossroads Productions of Anaheim produced “Coming Attractions,” a satirical comedy for the uncurated “Open” portion of the festival, open to any group that paid its own production costs. The troupe broke even by selling out half of its 12 shows, said executive producer Brian Kojac. But Kojac said publicity efforts by the Open Festival didn’t seem to be a factor.

“We had slips in the programs to find out where people heard about us, and I don’t think we got anyone” who had been attracted by the festival’s own announcements, he said. “Most of the people (attending) were family and friends.”

Competition with about 600 other Open Festival events also posed a challenge, Kojac said. Ramya Harishankar, artistic director of the Arpana Dance Company of Irvine, had the same problem with the company’s single presentation.

“I think it was worthwhile because we reached audiences we might not have reached” performing in Orange County, Harishankar said. “But we were not sold out. . . . I think there were too many events going on.”

Some 230 curated festival programs, featuring 1,400 artists from as far as Africa, no doubt made it tough to attract crowds, she added. “People probably choose to see out-of-town groups rather than those based in Southern California.”

The Ainahau o Kaleponi Hawaiian Civic Club chorale, based in Huntington Beach, had difficulty judging its own drawing power because the two presentations it staged for the curated festival shared programs with out-of-town groups.

But civic club spokeswoman Jane Pang praised the festival for organizing what she called a “first-time ever” round-table discussion at UCLA. The panel brought together native Hawaiians living in California--including Civic Club members--and those living in Hawaii to discuss “the Hawaiian cultural identity and the difficulties we have living here in California,” Pang said.

“We have to thank the L.A. Festival for providing us with that forum.”