All day: Festival

Santa Monica can’t just throw a party--it has to have a festival that expresses the city’s ethnic history and environmental concerns. However it’s described, Santa Monica Festival 1999: A Celebration of Our Community Roots is still a big, free party with music (the Oscar Lopez Ensemble, Charanga Cubana), performances (San Francisco Mime Troupe) and demonstrations (garden expert Lili Singer).

* Santa Monica Festival, Clover Park, 2600 Ocean Park Blvd., Santa Monica. 11 a.m. to dusk, rain or shine. Free. (310) 458-8350.

11:30 am: Family

Kathy Kinney (“The Drew Carey Show”) and Brad Garrett (“Everybody Loves Raymond”) host the third annual “Poetry Cafe,” an open-mike poetry-reading party that invites children 5 and older to bring poems, songs, limericks, jump-rope rhymes and other favorites to read out loud. A poetry craft is included. Black berets, goatees and shades are encouraged.

* “Poetry Cafe,” Storyopolis, 116 N. Robertson Blvd., Plaza A, Los Angeles. 11:30 a.m. $6. (310) 358-2512.

7:30 pm: Pop Music

Jay-Z and DMX bring a taste of the Hard Knock Life to Orange County. This is arguably the highest-profile hard-core rap tour ever, outside the annual Smokin’ Grooves festival.

* Jay-Z, DMX, Method Man, Redman, Arrowhead Pond, 2695 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim, 7:30 p.m. $15 to $40. (714) 704-2500.

8:15 p.m.: Pop Music

Back before Beck Hansen, “Beck” meant Jeff Beck, the English guitar hero whose roots stretch back to the Yardbirds in the mid-’60s. The adventuresome instrumentalist has released his first album of new material in 10 years, “Who Else!”

* Jeff Beck, Universal Amphitheatre, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, 8:15 p.m. $25.50-$48. (818) 622-4440.

1 pm: Music

Reviving its 1991 production of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni,” L.A. Opera introduces a new Don in the person of American baritone Dwayne Croft in performances through May 2. The cast includes Jane Eaglen, Sally Wolf, Richard Bernstein, Michael Schade, Malcolm MacKenzie and Louis Lebherz. Evelino Pido conducts.

* “Don Giovanni” will be performed in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown Los Angeles, at 1 p.m. $25 to $137. (213) 365-3500). Also, April 21, 24, 27, 30 and May 2, all at 7:30 p.m.

all day: Festival

Orange will be the color and the flavor of the day at the Riverside Orange Blossom Festival, during which some 200,000 orange lovers will squeeze into 20 square blocks in downtown Riverside. Attractions include the Turn-of-the-Century Grove, which revisits life as it was 100 years ago, and Citrus Grove, which features orange experts. Children can visit Children’s Grove and compete in the Orange Olympics, which feature games played with oranges. Four stages will host bands playing country, zydeco, alternative, Latin, jazz, blues and oldies. There will be 100 food and shopping booths. And, of course, plenty of OJ.

* The Riverside Orange Blossom Festival, downtown Riverside; Saturday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sunday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Free. (909) 715-3400 or (800) 382-8202.

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FREEBIES: “Family Free Day” focuses on Thai culture, , 1-4 p.m. Pacific Asia Museum, 46 N. Los Robles Ave., Pasadena, (626) 449-2742.

Earth Day Celebration and Concert will feature eco-vendors, children’s activities and music, Polliwog Park, Manhattan Beach Boulevard at North Peck Avenue, Manhattan Beach, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. (310) 318-6642.