Volunteers Ready Festival for Opening

Volunteers helping coordinate Simi Valley Days are spending the last few days scrambling to make sure their months of preparation come off without a hitch. The festival begins Wednesday.

“A lot of things are done,” said Jo Ann Macek, executive director of the Simi Valley Days Committee. “The fence is up, the port-a-potties are arriving. . . . We have a command post trailer that’s in place.”

Macek and the other members of the 45-person committee are overseeing all the major and minor details that make the five-day festival run.

By Wednesday morning, the livestock for the rodeo should arrive, along with two-way radios and special fire-retardant straw for the ground cover, Macek said. The parking lot is being re-striped, and volunteers have informed nearby businesses about how their employees can avoid carnival traffic.

“We don’t want people in the area to be unduly inconvenienced,” she said.

Supervising the work of all the various contractors takes teamwork, Macek said.

“There must be 20-plus companies that are involved,” she said. “Volunteers oversee each one.”

More than 30 nonprofit agencies in the area use Simi Valley Days as a major fund-raiser. Each group sponsors a different event and uses the proceeds for various programs throughout the year.

“All we do is make sure they have whatever coordination they need,” Macek said.

The main Simi Valley Days carnival kicks off at 5 p.m. Wednesday at the city-owned fairgrounds on 1st Street, just north of the Ronald Reagan Freeway.