Waves of Change Hit Laguna Beach Art Festivals

Half of the free world’s potters must be in Laguna Beach, now that it’s summer and the season of alfresco art festivals at every corner, glen and garage.

Coffee mug potters. Tea pot potters.

Garlic jar and cooking pot potters.

Porcelain art potters. Potters of mixed and merged media.

Never has so much of Earth’s damp dirt been so worked, wedged, bisqued and rakued.

No one knows for certain when the first potters fired up in Laguna. But they--along with their companions in painting, jewelry making, weaving and woodworking--swarm forth each summer, as constant as sunscreen and parking fees.

Constancy, that’s Laguna Beach.

To a casual visitor, nothing (including at times the traffic signals) seems to change in this south Orange County community. Longevity itself is a way of life. The Festival of Arts, celebrating 60 years as the oldest and possibly largest gathering of its type, has gone from the 1932 Depression to the 1992 recession. The festival’s “living art” Pageant of the Masters traces its collateral history back almost as far, to 1933. The festival’s permanent home was established 51 years ago. The city’s two other art festival-attractions on Laguna Canyon Road--the Sawdust and the Art-A-Fair--have been around for 25 years. Artists at the older Festival of the Arts hang signs in front of their booths proclaiming their presence there for 25 to 37 years. History in Laguna, clearly, is a two-digit experience.

Beyond the surface constancy, there are some fidgeting signs of change, change that signals subtle shifts in taste and interests, change in how we spend our money on art and entertainment, change in what draws people to such events as festivals. There are, after all, weekend sales billed as art events on street corners and malls everywhere, and living pictures can be rented at the video store.

Despite its venerable and pretentious name, the Pageant of the Masters is for the first time facing change. That nightly depiction of classic works of art through the use of stagecraft and human models, once was a sellout by February, five months before opening night. The pageant’s two ticket-booth attendants weren’t there to sell, just to handle cancellations and make adjustments. The pageant was a hot ticket long before rock concerts, scalpers and TicketMaster.

No more, even though large blocks of seats are held for pre-season sale to festival members who live in Orange County and associate members beyond the county line. Today, same-day service is a distinct possibility.

Except for Monday and Tuesday nights, most shows still sell out with tickets being sold up to show time. The good seats--loges and the first two terraces--still go first, the $8 and $9 tickets in the far corners usually are available.

The large block of ticket buyers who were bused into Laguna Canyon each night by travel agents and brokers have dwindled to a few. David Young, board president of the festival, remembers when 50% of ticket buyers came by bus in large groups.

Today, he says, that’s changed, too. Too few block bookers want to take the chance on advance sales and empty seats. About 90% of ticket sales at the pageant now come over the telephone through credit-card purchases. Most tickets are sold through 800 numbers and four telephone operators. This year--another sign of change--a $100,000 computer just to handle ticket sales.

Money has gone backstage, too. Where $40,000 could be budgeted for the stage production in the late ‘50s, Young says, this year’s production budget with seven producers and state-of-the-art equipment hits $800,000.

The bigger expenditures, Young says, reflect a desire to produce a realistic program. The changes in attendance, he says, are reflective of general problems in the economy. “We researched this,” he says, “and almost everyone in entertainment indicates that attendance is down. People are holding on to their money.”

Attendance at the art exhibit and sale on the grounds outside of the Irvine Bowl has been slipping in recent years, too. So the festival has brought a few more musicians onto the grounds, opened some demonstration booths, tried to make festival-going under its blue canvas awnings more attractive. It’s also done something about the nature and quality of the exhibiting artists.

The artists--all from southern Orange County postal zones--are now chosen by jury, not by panels formed exclusively by the board of directors, but a jury with four members chosen by local artists and three by the board. As a result, the exhibiting works seem more contemporary, less a good-old-painter thing.

Then there’s the film festival. After an earlier tryout, a serious summer film series started this year, an attempt to broaden the festival’s appeal--moving pictures next door to “living pictures.” Films are shown at the Forum Theatre on festival grounds at 6 and 9 p.m. on Wednesdays. The first two offerings were “Longtime Companion” and “Mississippi Masala.” Coming up on successive Wednesdays are “Rosalie Goes Shopping,” “Leningrad Cowboys Go America,” “Paris Is Burning,” “Metropolitan” and “To Sleep With Anger.”

What hasn’t changed about the Festival of Arts, says Young, is what it does with its money. Laguna Beach High School gets $125,000 each year for college scholarships. Up to $100,000 is distributed to Laguna arts enterprises, the ballet, the playhouse, the chorale society. The city gets $500,000 in land lease payment from the festival.

“Laguna is the only city in the world,” Young says, “where art helps support the city. The city doesn’t give us a damn thing. We maintain the buildings we built. We pay the city, no strings, for the land and it goes into the general fund for whatever the city wants. We’d like to see it plowed back into the arts, though.”

Up the canyon at the relatively youthful Sawdust Festival--into its 26th year--subtle change has arrived, too.

There the bad news is that attendance is down.

The good news is that T-shirt sales are up.

It’s the economy thing, the early July rains, the mid-July humidity.

But at the same time the Sawdust people are trying to go with the times, bringing in more live entertainment, reaching out with advertising and commercial campaigns. Last winter, they tried a four-day winter festival and this year they’ll come back for a 10-day November selling effort. Their artists are chosen by lottery and have to be Laguna-area residents. Sawdust also contributes scholarships to Laguna Beach High, reportedly the school with more festival-induced scholarships than any other in the United States.

When the Sawdust Festival first spread its authentic sawdust over an empty piece of seaside land in 1967, admission was free and potters kicked their wheels. Now $4 gets you in and as many as 35 potters plug in their wheels and kilns.

Ceramic garlic jars are moving this year.

And even constant Laguna Beach shows change.

Long-Running Arts Festivals

The Laguna Beach Festival of the Arts traces a history back 60 years. The city’s two other festival attractions--the Sawdust and Art-A-Fair--have been held for a quarter-century. The three festivals continue through Aug. 30.

The Festival of the Arts and Pageant of the Masters, Irvine Bowl Park, 650 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. Festival hours: 10 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. daily. The pageant is presented nightly at 8:30. Admission: $1 to $2 for the festival; $9 to $38 for the pageant. (714) 494-1145.

The Sawdust Festival, 935 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. Hours: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays; to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. $3 to $4 (season pass $15). (714) 494-3030.

Art-A-Fair, 777 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. Hours: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. $1-$3.50. (714) 494-4514.