Laguna Beach and Art Festival on Brink of Breakup

Like squabbling children worn out by their own stubbornness, the city of Laguna Beach and the Festival of Arts have taken a timeout.

The spat that started it all--over whether the popular summertime art venue is paying too much in rent--is no longer the real issue. Neither side can truly remember how it came to this, how a 68-year city tradition could disintegrate so quickly, how the simple idea of enriching people’s lives with art and tableaux vivants could become so mired in politics and money and misguided loyalties. It has split the organization’s board and pitted artists against the festival at which for years they have shown their work.

Now the festival has entered into talks with the city of San Clemente for a 20-acre site. And that has some people on both sides wondering: What would Laguna Beach be without the pageant it proudly advertises itself as the home of? And what sort of arts festival would it be, dislocated from the picturesque town it has called home for nearly 70 years?

“Everything went from bad to worse, until we finally felt like we were banging our heads against the wall,” said festival President Sherri Butterfield.

Added City Manager Kenneth C. Frank: “I don’t know what happened. Things just kind of went straight to hell.”

About 160 artists show their work in booths at the festival, which also runs the quirky but internationally known Pageant of the Masters, a display of people posing as works of art, set to live orchestral music. It always seemed like a perfect match: Laguna Beach, with its reputation as an artists colony, and an arts festival that attracts 225,000 visitors to the city each year--along with their $6 million a year in spending on food, parking and trinkets at local shops.

For years, the city and the festival have quarreled over annual rent payments, which amount to more than $500,000. For years, the festival has threatened to take its show elsewhere. And for years, the city has managed to strike a deal, even at the 11th hour, to keep it there.

So 3 1/2 years ago, when the two sides started talking terms again for the current lease, which ends in September 2001, both figured things could be the same. The demands would come, followed by the threats. Some concessions would be made and a deal would be struck.

Not this time.

The festival decided to redefine itself for the first time, making it clear to city officials that its vision for the next 20 years--the length of the next lease agreement--called for unprecedented growth and at least $30 million in capital improvements at the aging Laguna Canyon Road site. The work ranged from additional parking and restroom remodeling to major stage expansions for the Pageant of the Masters.

The city responded at first as it always has. It waited. When festival officials touted offers from at least six other cities that were trying to lure the show away, Laguna Beach City Council members shrugged it off again.

“Honestly, we didn’t pay much attention to it,” Frank said. “We thought it was a negotiating ploy. It had been before.”

Despite what Butterfield and other festival officials described as an impasse in negotiations last fall, Frank said the city remained optimistic that “logic would prevail.” He held that view until two weeks ago, when the festival entered in to exclusive negotiations with San Clemente.

Then, days ago, Frank said he saw a videotape that showed Butterfield at a San Clemente City Council meeting. Promises of a bigger site, a 3,000-seat amphitheater (the Irvine Bowl, where the pageant now shows, has 2,000 seats), a 15,000-square-foot museum and about 2,000 parking spaces (parking is in continual shortage in Laguna Beach) swirled through the discussions.

“We are certainly grateful for this opportunity to spend some time exploring this opportunity with you,” Butterfield said at that council meeting. “It’s an excellent opportunity . . . and we hope it results in a match.”

Suddenly it seemed clear that Laguna Beach was in real danger of losing the festival. And city officials became suspicious of the festival’s real motive. Its current site is one-fourth the size of the San Clemente location, and Laguna Beach, which is fairly well built out, has little more to offer.

“In retrospect, I think the festival changed its vision to have a more grandiose image of what the Pageant of the Masters is,” Frank said. “If what San Clemente is offering them is their vision now, it can’t happen here. That vision can’t be accommodated in Laguna Beach.”

For their part, festival board members say it’s up to Laguna Beach to keep the festival there. For decades, they have been self-sustaining, giving back to the community with countless hours of volunteer work and art education. Now it’s the city’s turn to give back to us, they say.

The squabble has fractured the festival’s own membership, with artists who favor keeping the show at its birthplace lashing out at the board members.

Last week, more than 100 of the festival’s 160 exhibitors signed a petition to recall the board if it did not resume negotiations with Laguna Beach and drop all discussions with San Clemente.

Board members invited the artists to a special meeting. It did not go well.

“We have a historic interest in Laguna Beach and 68 years should count for something,” artist Michael Jacques told the board. “Since you are all so sure about going on to San Clemente, you should go on. The artists want to stay here. We don’t want to go and we’re not joined at your hip.”

Residents and other festival supporters who have started wondering for the first time what would happen if the biggest show in town really did leave.

“The festival’s entire ambience, its whole essence, is Laguna,” said Arnold Hano, a 50-year city resident. “And without the festival, we would become a town without a soul.”