Festival Sets Its ‘Agenda’

The 10th annual NoHo Theatre & Arts Festival next weekend will be less the generic street fair and business expo of past years and more an event with a “complete arts agenda,” says festival executive director Don Eitner. This year’s festival is expected to draw 50,000 visitors.

Perhaps as a symbol of its new commitment to fine art, the festival will have on display an early Andy Warhol print titled “Cow 1966.” The work is on loan from New York’s Andy Warhol Foundation (which is headed by former Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs) and can be seen in the lobby of the 5200 Lankershim Academy office building, which will be open to the public during festival hours.

This year’s festival, Eitner adds, will include more family activities than its earlier incarnations, including storytelling, finger and face painting, comedy improv, mask making, print making, puppetry, music, dance and crafts.

Other highlights include a salute to America’s musical roots with live concerts on the American Stage (jazz, rock, big band, bluegrass, R&B;, country, swing and blues, and dance lessons in swing dancing, line dancing, clogging and the Charleston); world music on the International Stage; 120 free daytime theater events; outdoor galleries; and the vendors’ marketplace, with arts and crafts booths and the international cuisine of 15 countries.

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NoHo Theatre & Arts Festival, May 18 and 19, 11 a.m.- 8 p.m., corner of Lankershim and Magnolia boulevards. Information: www.nohoarts district.com. MTA Metro Rail and Bus Line information (800) COMMUTE or www .mta.net. Free parking will be available; follow signs posted throughout the neighborhood surrounding the festival grounds.