Best Bets

Sunday 4/28

All day

Festival

The 16th annual Santa Barbara Jewish Festival at Oak Park will include a mix of cultural tradition and entertainment. Two performance stages will offer continuous entertaining, including klezmer music, cantorial works, Hebrew and Israeli folk songs and dancing. There will also be an outdoor delicatessen, used book sale, children’s activities and an exhibit of artwork by 25 Israeli artists.

Santa Barbara Jewish Festival, Oak Park, Junipero Street and Alamar Avenue, Santa Barbara. Free. (805) 957-1115. www.sbjf.org.

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4:30pm

Music

Ami Porat will devote the final program in the Mozart Classical Orchestra’s 2002 season to pieces that illustrate the evolution of symphonic works. The program will include a preclassical piece by Czech composer Josef Myslivecek, J.C. Bach’s Sinfonia Concertante in A, Haydn’s Divertimento for Cello and Strings, Mozart’s Symphony No. 22 and Michael Haydn’s Symphony in E-flat.

Mozart Classical Orchestra, St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, 600 St. Andrews Road, Newport Beach. 4:30 p.m. $15 to $33. (949) 830-2950.

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7pm

Music

John Alexander will lead the Pacific Chorale and the Pacific Chorale Children’s Chorus in the final concert of the season. The program will include several works by the chorale’s composer-in-residence, Eric Whitacre, including “Sleep,” “Three Songs of Faith” and “When David Heard”; Howells’ Requiem; and Copland’s “Old American Songs.”

Pacific Chorale, Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. 7 p.m. $16 to $50. (714) 662-2345.

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8pm

Reading

Iowa may seem removed from the arts world but the books that come out of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop reveal unique visions of the world. Five Iowa alumni will discuss and read from their novels at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Hosted by The Times’ Patt Morrison, the event will feature novelists T. Coraghessan Boyle, Jane Smiley, poets David St. John and Marvin Bell and Emmy winner David Milch.

Los Angeles Celebrates the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. 8 p.m. $20. (877) 522-6225.

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All day

Festival

Los Angeles celebrates Cinco de Mayo a week early. Fiesta Broadway 2002 will have 36 square blocks of party, including “Taste of Latino L.A.” food booths with offerings from various Latino cultures, games, rides, a children’s play park and six stages featuring such musical acts as Celia Cruz, Charlie Zaa, Jose Luis Rodriguez “El Puma,” Alicia Villareal, Maribel Guardia, Laura Pausini, Luis Fonsi and others. Alejandra Guzman has been chosen as Fiesta Broadway queen and Banda El Recodo will serve as grand marshals. New York City’s singing cop, Daniel Rodriguez, who captured the nation’s attention after the Sept. 11 tragedy, also will perform. Best of all, it’s free.

Fiesta Broadway 2002, Broadway between First Street and Olympic Boulevard, downtown L.A., 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Free. (310) 914-0015.