Hushed Poppies

The city is celebrating the state’s official flower this weekend with the sixth annual California Poppy Festival, but the guest of honor is almost a no-show.

The Antelope Buttes 15 miles west of the city should be blazing-orange fields blanketed with poppies this time of year.

Instead, because of light rainfall and a relatively warm winter, wild grasses have overrun the area, preventing the poppies from making a dramatic entrance.

Only scattered patches of poppies have appeared.

But the festival, which celebrates the poppy’s brief but sometimes spectacular appearance, must go on, says Pilar Alcivar, the city’s recreation superintendent.

The spectacular blooms come only once every six years in any case, according to Mary Lou MacKenzie, a poppy specialist at the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve.

Alcivar said that regardless of what the poppies do, each year the festival attracts about 50,000 people to celebrate the capricious flower.

The festival Saturday and Sunday features an arts and crafts bazaar--only handmade goods allowed--over 30 food booths, a children’s carnival, music on two stages, a chalk-art exhibition, rides, games and a photography contest.

Top prize, $500, goes to the best flower photograph--preferably of a California poppy, Alcivar said.

Poppy shuttles will ferry people who want to try their luck finding the flowers out to the poppy reserve.

Alcivar said there will be poppies for sale, but they will be of the potted variety. “If you provide them water--something Mother Nature failed to do this year--they will grow,” she said.

The Poppy Festival, which runs 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, will be at Lancaster City Park, 43011 N. 10th St. West at Avenue L, just east of the Antelope Valley Freeway. The entry fee is $4 for adults and $2 for children and seniors.