An Amusing Weekend

The normally quiet community of Camarillo will be bustling, one might even say bursting, with amusements this weekend during the annual Pleasant Valley Days.

The Camarillo Fiesta Assn. rescheduled this year’s festival, normally held in the fall, so that it would coincide with Circus Vargas’ appearance in town.

Pleasant Valley Days will still offer its traditional midway of booths with food, games and continuous entertainment Friday through Sunday, plus a car show, 5K run and kids run on Saturday. All proceeds, association president Donna Morgan says, will support Camarillo High’s athletic, music, agricultural and communications arts programs.

The line-up of entertainment includes just about every kind of music you’ve ever heard of--and some that may be new, especially to kids--such as the stylings of the Santa Rosette Cloggers. And perhaps kids have heard music from the era referred to in the name of the “45 RPM’s Classic Rock Band,” but few will have seen any of the big-holed records from back then.

Additional “period” music--which ‘90s kids seem to think is quite up-to-date--will be provided by the Channelaires, Tailgate 8--Dixieland Jazz Band, The Untouchables and the Convertibles 50’s Band.

Indeed, two of the groups appearing--the West Coast Jive Band and California Swing Kids--are composed not of nostalgic adults but of Camarillo High School students whose enthusiasm for golden oldies has turned them into high-powered performers who regularly go on tour. The fiesta’s organizers, Morgan says, are particularly interested in supporting the school’s music program.

The country and Latin stylings of groups such as Cool Water Country, the Piru River Band and the Mariachi Juvenil Azteca will round out the three-day musical marathon.

The Alphabet Soup Puppeteers, a husband-and-wife team of local artistes, will perform four times. Arla and Jay Crane of Camarillo have been touring county fairs and western state fairs with their original marionette shows for 25 years.

On Sunday at 12:30 and 1:30 p.m., they’ll present “Quinceanera.” “It combines Spanish and English in a way that is understood and enjoyed by both children and adults,” explains Jay Crane. “The story is abut a girl mouse named Mercedes who is celebrating her 15th birthday. Right in the middle of the festivities, a nasty cat shows up and kidnaps the heroine!”

“Farm Follies” will be seen Sunday at 3:30 and 5 p.m. “It’s about a little girl scarecrow [and her] attempts to imitate the special talents of the other creatures at the farm, with some rather surprising results,” Crane says.

The fiesta’s 5K run on Saturday at 8 a.m. will be followed by a special “Kids Run”--a 400-meter dash for kids 12 and under--at 9 a.m. Entry fee is $5, and those who complete the race will receive an award.

The Pleasant Valley Days Auto Show, also Saturday, offers kids a chance to ogle some of the hottest street rods in Ventura County, as well as classic and rare foreign cars that local aficionados have been polishing all year.

While all these activities are going on, a few paces away, Circus Vargas will be putting on seven performances under its little Big Top, and offering pony rides and a petting zoo with a yak, camel, llama, long-haired highland cattle, sheep and goats.

BE THERE

Pleasant Valley Days, Fri. 6-10 p.m., Sat. 7 a.m.-10 p.m., Sun. noon-7 p.m. at Camarillo High School Athletic Complex, Ventura Freeway at Santa Rosa / Pleasant Valley roads. Kids 12 and under free, others $1. (805) 482-0589.

Circus Vargas performs Fri. at 7:30 p.m., Sat. 2:30, 5 and 7:30 p.m., Sun at 12:30, 3 and 5:30 p.m. (805) 650-7166.