Expanded Arts on Green to Open Two-Day Run : Festival: The event features almost 100 groups today and Sunday in Costa Mesa. Up to 30,000 visitors are expected.

Isn’t it always the way with parties? You start with a few close pals and before you know it, you’ve got a full-blown extravaganza on your hands.

That’s the way it’s worked with Arts on the Green, a two-day arts festival sponsored by the Costa Mesa Chamber of Commerce this weekend in Town Center Park. Established in 1984, the first Arts on the Green was a splashy little salute to South Coast Repertory’s 20th anniversary. It was a half-day festival that brought together 3,000 party-goers, 15 local performance troupes and a couple of visual art displays. This year’s guest list--like just about every other element of the event--has swollen considerably. As many as 30,000 are expected to attend the free event, according to Carol Heywood, co-chairwoman with Diane Pritchett.

Themed “Window to the Arts,” the festival will showcase almost 100 area dance, music, theater and literary groups on eight stages (the largest number yet for the festival), along with an art gallery, an artists’ village, children’s activities and international food. The festival, supported in part by a grant from the city, had been stretched to two days to accommodate the greater variety.

“In past years, we had to turn away performers because of limited stage space,” Heywood said. “So we looked at our costs, and found that it made more sense to make it a two-day event which makes it more convenient for the artists and the guests.

Performances at the Arts on the Green range from ethnic dance troupes to Shakespearean soliloquies, presented back to back on stages throughout the site. (A complete schedule and grounds map are available at the information booth.)

Upon arrival, visitors will be greeted by a Whitman’s sampler of the arts on the Window Stage: a rotating platform where the lineup includes traditional chanteys and tales of the high seas by Gilman Carver, the Judy Sofer Puppets, ballet and modern dance, a visual arts demonstration, and improvisational comedy by Fractured Mirror. Music is king on the Center Stage, with performances by, among others, the Irish Fine Arts troupe, Pacific Symphony Brass and the Master Chorale’s pops singers, the Californians.

On the Amphitheatre Stage, classical and modern dance will be presented by such groups as Ballet Unlimited, Dance Kaleidoscope of Orange County and Rules Lures Contemporary Dance. Entertainment on the Plaza Stage include South Coast Symphony, the Overture Company of Opera Pacific and Chihiro Koto Ensemble.

Dramatic readings and original theater pieces will be features on the Portal Stage, located in the shadow of the Performing Arts Center’s Grand Portal. The lineup there includes Shakespearean soliloquies by Marc Weishaus, scenes by actors from the Grove Shakespeare Festival, and original works by South Coast Repertory’s Young Conservatory students.

Nearby, in the Palm Court Stage, international song and dance will be performed by the Strathleven Scottish Dancers, Relampago Del Cielo, Kathak Dance of India and the Flatland Cloggers. The Center will host backstage tours and a chamber-music performance by I Cantori in Founders Hall (Admission is free but tickets must be picked up in advance at the Center box office).

The Imperial Stage in the lobby of the Imperial Bank Building will be the setting for readings by Steve Mellow’s Reader’s Theatre, the Multi-Cultural Women Writers of Orange County and Laguna Poets. Stop-Gap will present “Not Guilty,” a short play dealing with the effects of alcoholism on the family.

Visual arts buffs can view the works of 55 local artists in the art gallery tent and watch works in progress at the Artist’s Grove. Arts on the Green will also offer hands-on arts activities for children, and a food court featuring international dishes.

Arts on the Green, a free arts festival, will be held today and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. in Costa Mesa’s Town Center Park, located off Town Center Drive between South Coast Repertory and the Westin South Coast Plaza Hotel. Admission is free; $4 for most parking. Call (714) 650-1490 for information.