Smaller Crowds the Only Sour Note at Citrus Festival

It was the fair where everybody knew your name.

At the 26th annual Santa Paula Citrus Festival this weekend, about 5,000 local folks took to the town’s Veterans Park to zoom around on the rides and maybe win a stuffed animal or two at an affair that its organizers concede has seen attendance shrink over the years.

For the first time in a long time, there was no parade, and surprisingly little citrus for a town so devoted to lemons and limes. But there were more than enough plates of tacos and enchiladas, cookies and nachos at about five booths to satisfy appetites.

Even though it was named for the fruit of the numerous orchards that stud the area, the Citrus Festival has always been more about the town’s residents than its livelihood--and the top moneymaker for the sponsoring organization, the Kiwanis Club.

“In its heyday there were 40, 50, 60 booths. Every church in town was here,” said club member Bill Grant, who organized the event. “But people are getting older. The younger generation goes to the mall. They don’t go downtown anymore.”

Nonetheless, the festival was expected to generate about $7,000 for charities served by the club.

Stefan Gonzales, a mentor at the Santa Paula Youth Services Alliance, sat at a booth run by St. Paul’s Episcopal Church selling baked goods to raise money for the organization that helps youth at risk.

“We try to demonstrate a benefit for the whole community,” he said of his organization. The community is what makes the festival, no matter how small, special, he said.

“Everybody here is from Santa Paula,” said Monica Luna, who staffed a booth for Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, as she scanned the grounds of carnival games and shriek-inducing rides. “You recognize them all. This is a hometown thing.” And that’s why Grant and his colleagues continue to put on the festival, year after year.

“I think it’s sad when you lose a tradition,” he said. “So many other things happen. That’s why we want to keep it around forever.”