Simi Valley Days Finds Tentative Home After Search

After three weeks of homelessness, the Simi Valley Days festival will pitch its tent at a new locale on Tapo Street, if the City Council approves the move Monday.

“We’re all semi-relieved,” said Dave Yasman, president of the Simi Valley Days organization. “We’re pretty sure we’re going to get the site. We have all the verbal agreements, but we’re waiting for the ink on paper.”

Yasman’s caution is understandable, given Simi Valley Days’ tumultuous month.

In early July, the festival, slated Sept. 17- 21, had a nice, spacious location lined up--32 hilly acres at the intersection of the Ronald Reagan Freeway and 1st Street. But an unavoidable delay in grading the area meant organizers had to scratch the Simi Valley Days rodeo this year for lack of space and go hunting for new digs for the western-themed community celebration.

The festival’s executive director, Jo Ann Macek, spotted a suitable replacement site by a fluke while having her nails painted at a Tapo Street salon. She wondered, why not locate the festival on the vacant, weedy six-acre lot where Sears and Pic ‘N’ Save once stood?

Why not, indeed.

Excited about the prospect of more foot traffic on their ailing thoroughfare, Tapo Street business owners approved the move.

With the help of city leaders, Simi Valley Days organizers have secured verbal agreements from the property owners to lease the site between Sept. 1 and Sept. 22 for a mere $10, Yasman said. That contract, in which Simi Valley Days assumes all liability, should be signed shortly.

On Monday, the City Council is expected to approve the relocation as well.

Council members will consider closing off a half-mile stretch of Tapo Street between Cochran and Eileen streets during carnival hours. They will also be asked to allow carnival-goers to use the Civic Center and Metrolink station as remote parking lots, with shuttles to the festival.

Once everyone has signed on the dotted line, organizers will hustle to print posters and freeway signs with the new address, Yasman said. A site map will be drawn to plot the location of the Ferris wheel and other rides, the carnival games, vendors’ booths and the cotton-candy stands.

Come September, tractors will arrive on Tapo Street to clear the weed-choked lot for the event, which helps raise funds for clubs and charitable groups in Simi Valley and last year drew about 20,000 people.

To help the festival run smoothly, City Councilwoman Barbara Williamson has asked that residents near Tapo Street be patient during the five-day run. In return for putting up with increased congestion and noise, local residents will likely receive cut-rate or free gate passes. And the ailing business district nearby can only benefit from the visibility.

“We’re not talking a lifetime here. We’re not talking months. It’s just Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and part of Sunday,” Williamson said. “It will end eventually, and the noise will go away.”