Moorpark’s Festivities to Celebrate Rural Image

When Ventura residents celebrate their city’s heritage, they do it with a beach party. Simi Valley residents prefer a Wild West festival, complete with big hats and a rodeo. But when Moorpark throws a party for itself, it takes a theme straight from the city’s agricultural roots.

Moorpark Country Days will be celebrated today with pony rides, clog dancers performing on a High Street stage and other events designed to show off Moorpark’s small-town, rural atmosphere. Adding to the attractions, there will be a parade down Poindexter Avenue, a concert by the Air National Guard Band and crafts booths lining several downtown streets.

Even if the city is home to its share of Los Angeles County commuters, the annual festival still reflects the small-town self-image Moorpark residents hold dear.

“You better believe it,” said Mayor Paul Lawrason. “That’s certainly the way the people in town would like to see [Moorpark] remain.”

The festival began last weekend with a Rotary Club-sponsored dance and barbecue, and will finish Sunday with two races held by the Moorpark Running Club.

But most of the events happen today, starting with a 7:30 a.m. pancake breakfast, held at City Hall and benefiting the American Legion. Two hours later, five marching bands and dozens of cars and floats will start down Poindexter Avenue, heading toward High Street.

Moorpark Unified School District Supt. Thomas Duffy and Moorpark’s prized Little League team will be the parade’s grand marshals.

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Entertainment will be provided on stages set up on High Street. Throughout the afternoon they will feature a mix of music, dancing and other performances. The Simi Valley-based Clogging Company will take to the main stage at 1:05 p.m. to give a demonstration of tap dancing’s Appalachian ancestor.

Although the dance form has grown beyond its rural past, Walt Spellmeyer, the group’s director, said the program today will stick with the festival’s country theme.

“People now clog to anything--to rock, to rap, to heavy metal,” he said. “But we’re going to be doing country.”

At 1:30 p.m. the Magnificent Moorpark Melodrama will give audiences a taste of “High Noonish,” a western parody set to open at the theater in October.

“We’re getting all our western buildings out of storage,” said theater owner Linda Bredemann.

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Nearby, Bard and Walnut streets will be filled with vendors hawking arts and crafts. Those made thirsty by standing on the parade’s sidelines can stop at a beer garden next to Marceline’s cafe, while food booths will be clustered behind the main stage.

Despite competition today from Ventura’s powerboat regatta, Country Days organizers expect between 6,000 and 7,000 people to attend.

Moorpark Chamber of Commerce President Jim Stueck, whose group coordinated plans for the festival, said the chamber has tried holding the event on other weekends in the past and has run into similar conflicts.

With so many Ventura County communities holding civic festivals at summer’s end and fall’s start, competition for spectators, vendors and even high-school marching bands can be a problem.

“So what we’ve tried to do is kind of squeeze ourselves in between,” Stueck said, adding, “It’s just a nice day to come celebrate Moorpark.”