Kids’ Performers CHIME In at Knott’s Berry Farm : Music: Pop music titan Lou Adler is producing the Childrens Hospital International Music and Entertainment Festival this weekend.

Can one of the key figures behind the landmark 1967 Monterey Pop Festival do for children’s music what he did for rock ‘n’ roll?

*

Music producer Lou Adler, responsible for some of the biggest hits of the ‘60s and ‘70s (and for the cult film “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”), earned a place in pop music history with the groundbreaking Monterey concert, proving that rock artists were a cultural force to be reckoned with.

Adler, 57, dad to a toddler and now in the children’s music business with his Ode 2 Kids label, sees a parallel between that event and his latest venture: a three-day children’s music festival.

Adler has brought together dozens of children’s music entertainers--including crossover artists Cheech Marin and Waylon Jennings, both of whom have recorded for Ode 2 Kids--to perform in this weekend’s Childrens Hospital International Music and Entertainment Festival at Knott’s Berry Farm.

Beginning today at 10 a.m., the CHIME Festival will run morning to night through Sunday, with performances on several stages throughout the park. Celebrity hosts, among them Debbie Allen, Daryl Hannah, Byron Scott, James Worthy and Daniel Stern, will do story readings and introduce each evening’s special gala concerts. All the artists and celebrities are donating their time.

“One day became two days and then three days, and it became a festival,” Adler said. “We had very few turndowns and those in almost every case had to do with scheduling. We just kept on adding acts as we added days, and the overall enthusiasm from the artists and their reps was great.”

Joining Jennings and Marin are such recording artists as Discovery Music’s Joanie Bartels, A&M;’s Linda Arnold, Dan Crow from Sony Kids Music and Walt Disney Records’ Craig ‘n Co. Also among the lineup are San Francisco’s Banana Slug String Band, Norman Foote from Canada and Rosenschontz.

A portion of ticket sales will benefit Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles; $50-$100 tickets above regular admission include a reception each night with sponsors and artists.

“When we did the Monterey Pop Festival,” Adler said, “it was the first that gathered together that many pop artists. . . . A lot of the rules and regulations (for the then-underdeveloped rock ‘n’ roll market) had not yet been established.”

In a similar way, Adler said, the rules for marketing children’s artists are still being formulated.

“There’s a tremendous amount of talent, people who have chosen to work within this industry. There’s a misguided view that this is an industry where people come who can’t make it (elsewhere). That’s a misperception. These people are recording for the people that they want to record for, and they’re probably the workingest musical artists around--they work 200 to 300 dates a year. Because of that, their audience is growing, their fans are growing, and at some point it’s going to break open.”

*

Adler, who has spent the years since his “semi-retirement” from pop music as a restaurateur and film producer (“American Me” is a recent credit), believes that the parallel to the historic Monterey rock fest “will exist” if “we can gather the kind of media attention for a children’s music performance that we gathered for the pop performers” in the 1967 event.

Families “will get to see almost 50 (artists) in one major venue, so they’ll be able to not only know their names from the product, but to recognize them as performers. I think that will help both the audience (to increase their) knowledge of the performers and the performers to become more visible.

“The great byproduct,” he added, “will be helping the Childrens Hospital. Everyone’s waiving their fees. Every ticket sold will benefit the hospital.”

The three-day festival may be the largest Southland children’s music event, but others have proved parents’ willingness to seek out quality children’s entertainers.

Many CHIME artists performed in the recent “Children for the Rainforest” concert at the Greek Theatre, with headliner Sting, and have also participated in the Taffy Festival (Theatre Arts Festival for Youth), a two-day outdoor performance event with a ‘60s sensibility, held each fall at the Peter Strauss Ranch in Agoura.

Taffy co-producer John Wood and his J. P. Nightingale trio are part of the Knott’s lineup.

“There are never enough venues for gatherings of this size,” Wood said. “It can only help to support what I’m doing with Taffy: create more opportunities for families to get out and see quality groups in one place at one time.”

Roger Mincheff, director of special projects at Childrens Hospital, also feels that the festival at Knott’s goes beyond fund-raising.

“After June 11th to 13th,” he predicted, “you are going to see things like the CHIME Festival happening in abundance. . . . This is exactly the kind of event which could bring children’s entertainment right into the mainstream.

“Over the past three months, I have gone from ignorant to fairly well-versed in children’s music. I don’t know if I want my friends to know that I listen to ‘My Name Is Cheech, I Am a School Bus Driver’ in the car, but it’s phenomenal: The music stands on its own. Yes, it’s for kids . . . but this is great entertainment, period, no matter what the genre.”