Valley Independence

With so many media people living here, the Valley enjoys one advantage when it comes to celebrating the Fourth of July.

Where else in the country could you combine a carnival, a concert, an antique car show and fireworks display and get away with calling the event “Valley of the Stars and Stripes”?

That is what the welcoming banner will say on Sunday at the entrance to the Independence Day celebration on the North Campus at Cal State Northridge. The event is open to everyone, of course, not just folks with a TVQ (proven audience recognition quotient), and this year 10,000 people are expected to attend.

The day’s musical performances will begin at 3 p.m. with rock, followed at 6 with country, 7:30 with Dixieland music by the Jerico Big Band and 8:30 with Pat Boone.

A kid-oriented magic show at 4 p.m. will offer participants a chance to be “levitated.” Magician Eric Knight regularly involves not only audience members but animals in what he calls “The Kapt. Kenny Show.”

Somewhat unusual for an Independence Day celebration will be the “Luau Show,” starting at 5 p.m. and featuring the island cultures of Hawaii, Fiji, Samoa, New Zealand and Tahiti.

Presented by Westwind, a Los Angeles-based group founded in 1980 by choreographer-designer Gregg de Castro, the show will include fire-dancing, steel drums and hula-dancing, in which audience participation is encouraged.

The competitive classic auto show is expected to attract 50 to 100 owners of glamorous, lovingly cared-for cars from the first half of this century, ranging from Fords to Rolls-Royces.

Longtime Valley resident and event organizer Irv Felder said, “Anything with [a number] higher than a six as the first digit on its license plate is not a classic,” referring to the special classic car plates whose first number indicates the decade of its manufacture.

Felder promises that “people who lived in the ‘50s will [experience] a lot of nostalgia and happy memories because we’ll have lots of cars from that era, including my 1955 Daytona Beach Race car with its original colors.”

At 9 p.m., visitors will have a front-row seat for the largest fireworks display in the Valley.

General admission is $8; $5 for ages 5 to 11 and over 65; under 5 free.

Parking for this year’s event will be complicated by the construction sites on CSUN North Campus, so arrive well in advance of the portion of the event you’re interested in. Enter at the corner of Devonshire Street and Zelzah Avenue. Prior to 4 p.m. there will be no charge; thereafter, $3 per car.

Gates open at 2 p.m. For event information, call (818) 349-5676.