Sunny Skies Add Finishing Touch to Beach Festival
Ventura’s 12th annual California Beach Festival ended Sunday much as it began, as thousands packed onto the Ventura Promenade for a day filled with music, food and fun in the sun.
“It’s just so nice to be out here with the sun out and the water so pretty,” said 29-year-old Justine Hallyrand of Ventura. “It’s just a perfect day for this.”
More than 35,000 people attended the weekend festival to take in the live music shows, eat or just lounge on the beach.
“It’s been going great,” said Andrea Anderson, spokeswoman for the city’s community services division. “Everybody’s just been having a great time.”
While Saturday’s attendance was a little down from last year, Sunday’s sunny weather and warm temperatures brought about 18,000 people to the strip of shoreline north of Ventura Pier.
Begun in 1984 as a way of attracting visitors to the Olympics in Los Angeles north to the beach communities, the festival has become somewhat of a tradition for the city.
In addition to the hundreds of vendors who peddled everything from popcorn to fine silk sarongs, the festival featured an almost nonstop collection of live music as well as volleyball competition, 10- and 5K runs and surfing competition.
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