Street Festival Draws Shoppers Downtown

Fresh produce, handcrafts, smoking barbecue grills and kiddie rides helped transform San Fernando Road into a lively farmers’ market and festival Sunday.

For four hours, a section of San Fernando Road between South Brand and Mission boulevards was closed to traffic and opened to young families pushing strollers, kids cuddling rabbits at a petting zoo and shoppers thumping watermelons at the numerous fruit and vegetable stands set up in the roadway.

Patterning the event after similar family-friendly farmers’ markets and festivals in San Gabriel and Monrovia, city political and business leaders hoped a San Fernando Family Festival would lure shoppers downtown on weekends.

“I’ve been to the market in Monrovia, and I was happy to learn that there was going to be one here,” said Norma Davenport as she stopped at a booth to smell a bouquet of fresh-cut flowers. “I’m glad to see so many different vendors here.”

Some 45 vendors’ booths set up along the boulevard offered fruit, vegetables, popcorn, ice cream, pottery, crafts and grilled food, among other items.

In addition to the vendors, shopkeepers hauled racks of clothing, shoes, furniture, home-entertainment systems, small appliances and other items onto the sidewalk in front of their stores.

“More people are coming downtown on Sundays than they did before,” said Felipe Fuentes, a salesman at San Fernando Crafts. “It’s a place for kids to have fun on Sundays.”

The younger set whooped it up on a gigantic inflatable elephant, weaved among shoppers aboard a miniature firetruck and gently caressed rabbits, goats, a calf and even a piglet at the petting zoo.

A performance by children dressed in traditional Aztec Indian costumes--complete with feather headdresses, beaded breastplates and leather boots--helped continue the celebration of last week’s Mexican Independence Day.

The festival and farmers’ market runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Sunday through Dec. 21.