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Published on 07/07/1997 All articles from this issue

Festival time in Los Altos

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By Clyde Noel

Town Crier Staff Writer

Annual Arts & Wine event keeps community spirit, despite tremendous growth

Months of preparation, hundreds of phone calls and long hours by scores of people all lead to this weekend. Now organizers cross their fingers and hope this 18th annual Los Altos Arts & Wine Festival will not only fulfill its reputation as one of the premier events in the Bay Area, but be better than the year before.

It's a difficult task, considering the mammoth effort involved. The popular festival is expected to bring more than 100,000 people to State and Main streets in downtown Los Altos this Saturday and Sunday. More than 400 volunteers are expected to participate, a turnout other festivals can only dream of having.

"We start our meetings in January to set our goals and make sure the festival doesn't turn into another 'cookie cutter' festival," said Kathleen Byrne, executive director of the Los Altos Village Association, the downtown merchant's organization that puts on the event.

"We have to make sure the show is different from other festivals and continues to maintain our home community feeling," she said.

Byrne coordinates more than 600 people needed to run the festival from preparation to clean-up. The Los Altos Arts & Wine festival is the only event this large in the Bay Area that is not run by professional organizers.

A 15-member festival committee meets early in January, with each member taking on a segment of the festival he or she oversees, from booking entertainment to garbage detail.

Members meet monthly at first, then more frequently as the big dates draw nearer.

Volunteer committee member Chuck Angin has been responsible for festival finances the past six years.

"Now that we use audits we know what events work financially and what doesn't work," Angin said. "If soda sales go down, we put an audit on the location to find out why. Maybe the booth has to be moved. Whenever we do something now, we do it with a financial return in mind."

Committee member Dennis Ronberg is responsible for children's entertainment. As the owner of Linden Tree Children's Records and Books on State Street, he has a pretty fair knowledge of what kids like.

"You want kid's entertainment that doesn't last long and lets them get close to the front," he said. "Kids want to take part in a show, and to be successful some kids want to stand and others like to sit. You have to know the artist because he has to be good with kids," Ronberg said.

With such a festival drawing big numbers of people, planners need to think big in their supplies. Byrne ordered 500 cases of wine glasses and 500 cases of beer mugs for this year's event, all emblazoned with the a '97 Arts & Wine Festival logo.

This year, Byrne also rented 20 radios for logistics, provided for ambulance service in case of emergencies, ordered 1,000 bags of ice to be distributed to booths, contracted for workers to install electrical connections to each booth, ordered 32 restrooms and 400 booths for the exhibitors.

Liability insurance is secured to cover the show. Legal permits to put on the show are collected from the City of Los Altos. Arrangements are made to pay the city for police security and traffic control, overtime staffing for street cleaning and hanging up "No Parking" signs. All these preparations are made early in the year, Byrne said.

Exhibiting artists are selected by the promoters of the festival - a group called California Artists. More than 700 artists filled out an application for the Los Altos event and 400 are selected for best variety, diversity and quality. California Artists also provide exhibitors for the annual Los Altos Chamber of Commerce Fall Festival in early October.

Committee member Bob Hatch is wine master for the festival. It's his responsibility to see that liquid refreshments are available. This year ,eight wine booths will be maintained by volunteer Realtors from the Los Altos branch of the Peninsula West Valley Association of Realtors (PenWest).

"Most of the wineries want recognition and like to show in front of large crowds. Then if people like the wine, they ask retailers to carry the product," Hatch said. "We like to use Santa Cruz Mountain wineries and for beer, we like to go with local micro-breweries."

Julie Chancerelle, publicity director for the PenWest-Los Altos branch, recruited 100 local real estate agents to staff eight wine booths for the two-day festival.

Byrne said the committee selects the overall entertainment for the show from demo tapes.

"We received more than 400 demo tapes from the performers," she said. "Then after we listen to them, we select 15 entertainers for both days.

"For kids' entertainment, Dennis Ronberg is instrumental because of his knowledge of kids entertainers. It is tradition for several entertainers to return each year at our request."

Service clubs also are an integral part of the annual festival. The clubs depend on the festival turnout to raise funds. Additional club volunteers are necessary to work the food booths for the Sertoma, Rotary and Kiwanis clubs.

Los Altos Garbage Company officials are responsible each year for keeping festival grounds as tidy as possible, and also enlist the help of volunteers for clean-up of some 25 tons of garbage expected to be generated. Rubbish and recyclable containers are continually emptied. The company will use 15 employees and more than 30 volunteers during the course of the event.

The gargantuan proportions of today's Los Altos Arts & Wine Festival is a far cry from its beginnings. Back in 1980, Marion Jackston, the former matriarch of downtown Los Altos retailers, convinced Los Altos Village Association members to start a "garage sale" as a fund-raiser for the merchant's group. Jackston also was instrumental in the forming of the Los Altos Village Association in 1963, along with merchants Sam Kahn (Kahn's Corner Pharmacy) and Larry Nelson (Los Altos Pharmacy).

The Los Altos Arts & Wine Festival turned out to be one of the greatest fund-raisers imaginable for LAVA. Byrne said Village Association members are proud the festival has maintained the hometown, community feel over the past 18 years, despite its tremendous growth.

The festival's good graces with Los Altos residents lie in organizers' abilities to minimize negative impacts. The festival has traditionally drawn well-behaved crowds and triggered few incidents involving police action. Also, the post-festival clean-up is swift. Come Monday morning after the festival, the streets are returned to normal and Village Association committee members draw a collective deep breath - before preparing for next year.