Gusty Winds Can’t Keep Conejo Fair-Goers Home

A pair of arts and crafts fairs had Conejo Valley residents shopping like mad Sunday, despite strong winds that tested the nerves of both vendors and committed consumers.

Santa Ana winds, which at times reached 44 mph gusts in the east county, did not deter thousands from turning out for the eighth annual Thousand Oaks Street Fair on Moorpark Road near Hillcrest Drive. A separate festival, the inaugural Conejo Valley Jewish Craft Fair, also attracted crowds to a nearby synagogue on Janss Road.

Some vendors at the Rotary Club-sponsored street fair found their booths could not stand up in the heavy winds.

Alicia McAlpine, who makes natural gemstone jewelry, said her booth toppled over at the start of the daylong fair, and her delicate necklaces and bracelets blew off display tables onto the ground. McAlpine took the canopy off her booth to counteract the winds, but then found herself in another predicament: hot and bothered under a penetrating sun.

“We have to keep the tarp off because it acts like a wind sail,” said the Los Angeles-based artist.

Edwin Ramos held up the aluminum frame of his booth with one hand while he talked to customers about Andean music and the wooden instruments known as samponas he makes. Ramos, who was selling his flute-like instruments at the festival for the sixth consecutive year, said he was frustrated, but plans to return in 2000.

“It’s a good fair,” he said. “This is the first time it has been so windy.”

Nick Renna, a 35-year resident of Thousand Oaks, said the winds did not bother him.

“You can’t control the weatherman,” he said.

Officials of the Thousand Oaks Rotary Club filled sandbags to help hold down booths, but they said most vendors, who sell their wares at numerous fairs throughout the year along the West Coast, were prepared for the weather.

The club estimated the free event would generate about $50,000. Proceeds will go to a number of local charities and nonprofit organizations, including the Manna food distribution program, the Make-a-Wish Foundation and local Boy and Girl Scouts troops.

To avoid having a street festival with cookie-cutter merchandise, event planners permit only vendors who sell handmade crafts.

“We try and represent what we believe is the spirit of the Conejo,’ said Stan Cowan, a fair coordinator. “Despite that Thousand Oaks is an affluent community, many of the people go back to it being a rural, rustic community--that’s the aura we’re trying to capture.’

And the crowds were responsive, snatching up crafts, such as Christmas tree ornaments, birdhouses, tie-dyed clothing and picture frames.

Steve and Lisa Jasper of Winnetka in the San Fernando Valley were shopping for a painting when their son, Jacob, bounded from his stroller at the sight of a giant kitty. Actually, it was Daren, the lion mascot of the Drug Abuse Resistance and Education program.

Despite the heavy winds, and what he said was his toddler’s crankiness, Steve Jasper said their plan was to keep browsing.

“It hasn’t been bad enough to leave,” he said. “It’s fun.”

Over at Temple Etz Chaim, visitors bought Jewish ritual items and art. Although the fair was planned for outdoors, the heavy winds caused organizers to quickly move it inside.

They had been betting that the Jewish community in the Conejo Valley had grown large enough to support such an event, and attendance at the fair seemed to prove them right, said Lauree Feigenbaum, a temple member and one of the event’s main planners.

“We’ve had a nice steady flow all day long, and people are coming from all over the Conejo,” said Feigenbaum.

Strong winds are expected again today around sunrise, tapering off by the afternoon, said a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.