The 14th annual Santa Monica Festival will be held on Saturday, May 14, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Clover Park.
As in previous iterations, it has been organized by the City’s Cultural Affairs Division and will feature international music, theater and dance, food, arts workshops, and ecological activities.
The festival will begin with the official kick-off for Walk Santa Monica, a new City program that encourages residents to take 10,000 steps a day.
HBO, which opened its west coast headquarters in Santa Monica last year, is the festival’s lead sponsor and Yahoo!, which is locating its Media Group here, is the community stage sponsor.
Among the groups scheduled to perform at this year’s festival are Brazilian drummers and dancers from Viver Brasil, O-Maya, Paul Livingstone & the Arohi Ensemble, I See Hawks in L.A., Korean Classical Music & Dance Company, Culture Shock Los Angeles Dance Troupe, Maypole Dance with Peggy Sue Fisher and local children, and Youth Education/Entertainment Series.
Maria Elena Fernandez will be emcee on the main HBO Stage. The Los Angeles performer and writer is currently touring her indie theater hit, Confessions of a Cha Cha Feminist, a comedic chronicle of her rebellion against her traditional Mexican upbringing.
Joe Hernandez-Kolski & DJ Jedi serve as the emcee and DJ on the Community Stage.
Among the more notable events are Downbeat 720, – an open-mike poetry/music/performance program for local high school students, and Downbeat Showdown, a competition in which Santa Monica High, Crossroads, Venice High and other area high school students vie for “best” high school band, singer and poet honors.
In addition, the Santa Monica Public Library will conduct a craft workshop at which children can decorate miniature kites and “Dragons, Dreams and Daring Deeds Dress-up” at which participants dress in medieval finery, make their own crowns, and have their pictures taken with the princess of summer reading.
At the 18th Street Art Center’s Hidden Wisdom Labyrinth, people will decorate Chinese take-out boxes to contain their “ own pearls of wisdom” that they will then exchange for another box.
At the Superhero Workshop, the Santa Monica Museum of Art will help people create their own Superheros who have the power and talent to make the world and Santa Monica a better place.
The festival’s Eco Zone will showcase displays and demonstrations highlighting local and global environmental issues organized by the City’s Environmental Programs Division, the National Resources Defense Council, TreePeople, Heal the Bay and others.
Clover Park is located at 2600 Ocean Park Blvd., between Cloverfield Blvd. and 28th Street. Free and ample parking is available.For more Festival information, visit www.arts.santa-monica.org. All events are free and scheduled rain or shine.
