FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS

Sawdust holds CD release party

The Sawdust Art Festival, 935 Laguna Canyon Road, has produced and released a compilation CD of original music by groups who play at the Sawdust each summer.

A release party for “A Sawdust Summer of Music” will be held at 5 p.m. Monday at the Sawdust Saloon.

Admission to the party is included with festival admission.

The 14-song CD features such notable local musicians as the Missiles of October, Lisa Hayley and the Zydekatz Krewe and Jason Feddy.

The CD is available for $14.95 at the Sawdust Shoppe on the festival grounds.

The Sawdust Art Festival runs through Sept. 2, and is open daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

For more information, call (949) 494-3030 or visit www.SawdustArtFestival.org.

Art-A-Fair welcomes with jazz, drums

The Art-A-Fair, 777 Laguna Canyon Road, will feature live music every Thursday through Sunday on its newly christened Piazza Venezia stage at the front of the grounds.

Lagunans with I.D. are admitted free every day of the week.

Tonight and every Friday night from 5 to 8 p.m, DJ Inniss will spin Latin grooves while impromptu salsa dancing will be held.

In conjunction, Tivoli Too will offer their award-winning margaritas in the Gazebo.

Jazz Attack will perform from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, followed by Drexx Cannon’s uptown, pop and Motown sounds from 6 to 9 p.m.

Sounds of Paradise will perform mellow steel drum music from noon to 2 p.m. Sunday, followed by the Al Politano trio’s jazz guitar from 4 to 7 p.m.

Thursday will be “m-ART-ini Night,” during which graduate students from the CSU Long Beach Opera Institute will present popular opera excerpts and showtunes.

Free art workshops are also taught by exhibiting artists seven days a week between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Workshops include watercolor painting, comic drawing, creating clay figures, gourd painting, the basics of jewelry making, and painting a Venetian mask.

The Art-A-Fair is open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

For more information, visit www.art-a-fair.com or call (949) 494-4514.

Festival of Arts hosts kids art

The Festival of Arts will hold its first Sunday Blues Fest of the season from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday with the Peter Dobson Blues Band.

Patrons are welcome to bring a picnic for the show, and those who arrive between 1 and 2 p.m. will also be able to watch a cooking demonstration by chefs from throughout Orange County, who will share some of their favorite recipes for the summer.

Admission to the Blues Fest and cooking demonstration is free with the purchase of The Festival of Arts ticket.

The festival will also hold its first Youth Arts Education Workshop of the season on Wednesday.

The classes are open to children ages 6 to 12, and run from noon to 2 p.m.

Reservations are required; registration is limited to 20 children at each session, with a required materials fee of $10 per child.

In addition, Festival veteran Bob Baker Marionettes returns to hold an all-new puppet show from 12:30 to 1 p.m. during each Youth Arts Education Day.

The festival’s first Thursday Night Jazz & Wine Tasting event will be from 5 to 8 p.m. July 12 with the sounds of the Gonzalo Bergara gypsy jazz trio; there is a $7 tasting fee in addition to festival admission.

For more information, call (949) 494-1145 or visit www.foapom.com.