Festival: Not Just a Numbers Game

I can’t let your final dig (“L.A. Festival Ends With a Sparse Turnout,” Sept. 17) at the festival go by without a response.

Closing weekend events at the Santa Monica Pier may have been less well attended than expected (hindered no doubt by your continual dire predictions of traffic nightmares), but Descanso Gardens in La Canada Flintridge was alive with a large, happy crowd and wonderful performers.

Where were your reporters? They could have been enjoying the exquisite Chinese Classical Music Ensemble, following a parade of Korean folk dancers through the park or joining hands to dance to Bolivian folk songs. Instead, they were interviewing a disgruntled former festival employee. This is news?

The courage and ambition of Peter Sellars and his colleagues in trying to broaden our sense of this tremendously diverse community are to be commended and encouraged. Maybe The Times will get the point before the 1993 festival.

MARY HELMAN

South Pasadena