Pickets Want Laguna Festival to Stay Put

About 100 sign-carrying demonstrators picketed in front of the Laguna Beach Festival of Arts facility Saturday, protesting the nonprofit organization’s negotiations to move to San Clemente.

“We wanted to bring direct awareness to the public [of] the seriousness of the people involved in this fight,” said David Milton, a festival exhibitor who organized the rally. “Our board is being totally irresponsible.”

Residents waved signs reading, “Keep our festival in Laguna,” “Protect our cultural history” and “Recall our board of directors.” Drivers honked their horns as they passed protesters on Laguna Canyon Road, sparking cheers from the crowd.

The festival is expecting a lease proposal from San Clemente for a 20-acre site in the Talega development by Wednesday, said festival president Sherri M. Butterfield.

The festival’s current lease with Laguna Beach expires in September 2001. The city’s proposal to renew the lease, offered in July and again in December, has expired. The Laguna Beach City Council will decide at its Tuesday meeting whether to offer another lease agreement.

“So if they don’t give us a new one, we’ll pretty much have no choice,” Butterfield said.

Laguna Beach Councilman Wayne L. Peterson, who was at the protest to “show support for the group,” said the City Council has extended its closed session meeting Tuesday to discuss the lease.

“I would hope we’re going to offer a new one,” he said.

The festival’s directors believe the 68-year-old summer venue must move south because of what they see as Laguna Beach’s exorbitant rent. The nonprofit organization paid nearly $600,000 in rent last year for a 5.6-acre site that includes the Irvine Bowl.

Butterfield believes the protesters should be in front of City Hall.

“If the city would have given us a fair rent offer a few years ago, we wouldn’t be in this position,” she said.

Some arts exhibitors said there’s plenty of blame to go around for the controversy.

“Our City Council has been asleep at the wheel,” Milton said. “Even people who live here don’t realize that we’re this close to losing the festival.”

Festival exhibitors are considering recalling the arts board. An Orange County Superior Court judge on May 24 will decide whether to validate board recall petitions that festival officials rejected this month.