Beach Festival : 75,000 Lured by Fun, Sun

Cabrillo Beach hadn’t seen this much action since the latest oil spill.

About 75,000 people--almost four times the usual weekend crowd--crammed the San Pedro beach Saturday for what organizers are billing hopefully as the First Annual Los Angeles Beach Scene Festival, the sandcastle set’s answer to the downtown Street Scene.

And along with the lure of big-name performers like emcee rocker David Lee Roth and surf-music veterans Jan and Dean, the presence of seven corporate sponsors--from a Japanese truck vendor to a New Guinea brewery--and scores of small vendors of food and crafts spiced the day with more than just a little commercialism.

“It was great, real mellow,” said Sylvia Cunliffe, festival chairwoman, who said she was delighted at the large turnout to the free event. Proceeds from some of the vendors’ sales will benefit the “Save the Books” fund to restore the gutted Los Angeles Central Library.

Another thing made the festival unique: The sale of alcohol, on a public beach where even BYOB is normally banned. Two of the sponsors helping to foot the bill for the event, which is costing an estimated $50,000, were selling the only alcoholic beverages permitted in the area--wine coolers and beers.

As a result, police used “a lot of discretion” in their law enforcement Saturday.

“We tried to keep a real low profile,” said LAPD Sgt. John Hanna. It was difficult to judge the behavior of the large crowd, he said. “If we had had more policemen there, I guarantee we would have made more arrests.”

He added that the crowd became rowdier as the afternoon wore on. Police said at least ten people were arrested, eight on felony charges, including PCP violations, and two on misdemeanors, including one juvenile who was arrested for kicking a policeman’s horse. The horse was reportedly not seriously injured.

Several residents on Stephen White Drive and Bluff Place, which are the two streets that border the beach, complained to police of teens coming into their yards and urinating during the evening. “We sent our cars to those areas to check it out, but by the time we got there, they were gone,” said Hanna.

Supervisors Protest

The alcohol sales proceeded despite protests last week from county Supervisors Deane Dana, Mike Antonovich and Pete Schabarum, who said officials shouldn’t be encouraging drinking. But on Saturday, vendors checked the identification of buyers to see they were of legal drinking age, and limited sales to two drinks per person.

But for much of the crowd, the lure was sun and music--which were free--and the food, which wasn’t.

Like the urban Street Scene, the beach festival hoped to showcase Los Angeles’ cultural diversity, with fare from Peruvian original stuffed potatoes, shrimp-on-a-stick and King of the Egg Roll at a Thai cuisine booth, and $1.25 Polynesian Passion--flavored ices in paper cones.

Other vendors sold everything from pencil-sketch portraits, for $10 each, to tie-dyed T-shirts for about $15, although sales were not especially brisk.

Most of the family oriented crowd said they came primarily for the music and, judging from the dancing, seemed to be having fun.

For Joe Placencio, 33, of San Pedro, the festival was just a stroll away from home. “It’s well-organized and controlled. Everybody’s really just kicked back and enjoying themselves,” he said.

Radio Station Flap

Officials hoped to draw sponsors to help defray the costs of the event, but a flap arose last month, after the county Department of Beaches and Harbors hoped to make radio station KIIS-FM the “official radio station” for its beaches this summer in exchange for $96,000. But KLOS-FM filed suit last month in Superior Court, and a judge issued a temporary restraining order barring the county from naming KIIS or any other station as an official beach station. Nevertheless, because Cabrillo is a city beach, not a county one, KIIS remained a sponsor for Beach Scene, and its broadcasts echoed throughout the park.

Disc jockeys who were busy promoting sponsors, the radio station and themselves also hosted an amateur body-building contest, whose 20 semifinalists, male and female, will compete today for prizes of round-trip airline flights.

Shows unfolded on four stages, featuring such “progressive” musicians as Art of Noise, Jermaine Stewart, Missing Persons and El DeBarge. On tap for today are beach legends Jan and Dean, as well as Nu Shooz, Sparks, Animotion and Blood on the Saddle.

Beach Scene is not intended to replace Street Scene, but to complement it; city officials say they view the event as a celebration of area beaches.

In fact, Laura Locke of Redondo Beach, who strolled the beach in a blue and black leopard-print bathing suit, said she came to Cabrillo because she had missed out on Street Scene.

The festival continues today from 10 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. Admission and parking are free.