A FEW DAYS OF FAMILY FUN WITH A SMALL-TOWN FEEL : VALLEY EVENTS OFFER ALTERNATIVE TO YARD WORK.Byline: Dennis McCarthy A couple of the San Fernando Valley's most popular family events are kicking off this weekend, so turn off the ballgame on TV, let the grass grow in the back yard a little longer and forget about cleaning out the garage you weren't going to get around to anyway. All the chores and work you've been avoiding can be avoided one more weekend. It's time to party a little with the whole family. For starters, the 15th annual Salute to Recreation Family Festival at Northridge Park will kick off at 5 p.m. today with carnival rides, dance music and a free fireworks display at dusk. The Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, Valley region, does a heck of a job in shrinking the Valley for a few days and making this event have the feel of a real small-town fair. The festival will resume again Saturday morning at 10 a.m. with a street parade that features two out of three people you might like to see - Honorary Grand Marshal Jamaal ``Silk'' Wilkes, former UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX and L.A. Lakers basketball great, and Miss U.S.A. Brook Lee. The other person is me, serving as grand marshal. But don't hold it against the festival. It's still a heck of a lot of fun for people of all ages. The parade will begin at Reseda Boulevard and Chatsworth Street and will end at Northridge Park. Admission is free. After the parade, there are two days of nonstop family activities, including arts and crafts arts and crafts, term for that general field of applied design in which hand fabrication is dominant. The term was coined in England in the late 19th cent. as a label for the then-current movement directed toward the revivifying of the decorative arts. shows, a Hawaiian festival, carnival and animal rides, dunk tanks, a drill team competition, sports card shows, a petting zoo, gold mining, chili cook-offs and live entertainment. So, if you want to spend a few days having some family fun and feel like you were living in a small town of 15,000, instead of a sprawling Valley of 1.5 million, this is your chance. Northridge Park is at 10058 Reseda Blvd. For information on the festival, call (818) 349-0535. Just as the Salute to Recreation Family Festival is closing down at 4 p.m. Sunday, the Valley Cultural Center's wonderful Concerts in the Park series is kicking off in Warner Park, located at Califa Street and Topanga Canyon Boulevard in Woodland Hills. If you like balmy Sunday nights in the park, picnicking with the family and listening to some great music - for free - this is the place to be. As always, Marilyn Hankins and her staff over at the Valley Cultural Center have lined up a summer's worth of excellent concerts that stretch across the musical spectrum for all ages to enjoy. None of the 14 late afternoon, early evening concerts running through Aug. 31 has more homegrown talent, though, than the kickoff concert this Sunday featuring some of the Valley's most talented high school bands and individuals. If you're tired of reading and hearing about kids on drugs and in gangs, stop by the park and meet some kids who are making a positive impact on their communities with some fine music. They're the Valley's version of ``Mr. Holland's Opus.'' The school bands are from Granada Hills High School Granada Hills Charter High School (Granada Hills High School) is a public, charter, co-educational, secondary school consisting of students in grades 9-12. The school colors are green, black, and white. , North Hollywood High School North Hollywood High School, originally called Lankershim High School when it opened in 1927, is a secondary school in North Hollywood in Los Angeles, California. The school mascot is the husky, and the school colors are blue, white, grey. , El Camino Real High School El Camino Real High School (also known locally as "ECR" and by some more recently as "ELCO") is a public secondary school located in the Woodland Hills district of the San Fernando Valley region of the city of Los Angeles, California. , Calabasas High School Calabasas High School is a four-year high school, freshman-senior, in Calabasas, California, United States. Calabasas High School, which serves portions of Calabasas and the West Hills, Los Angeles, California section of Los Angeles, is one of three high schools in the Las , and the California State University, Northridge CSUN offers a variety of programs leading to bachelor's degrees in 61 fields and master's degrees in 42 fields. The university has over 150,000 alumni. It's also home to a summer musical theater/theater program known as TADW (TeenAge Drama Workshop) that leads teenagers through an , Youth Orchestra, which concludes the evening with the ``William Tell Overture The overture to the opera William Tell, especially its high-energy finale, is a very familiar work composed by Gioachino Rossini. There has been repeated use (and sometimes parody) of this overture in the popular media, most famously for being the theme music for the .'' Trust me. One Sunday night in the park and you won't be home watching Sunday night baseball Sunday Night Baseball is the Major League Baseball game of the week that is televised Sunday nights at 8 p.m, sometimes at 7 pm U.S. ET on ESPN during the regular season. on ESPN ESPN Entertainment and Sports Programming Network this summer. Future concerts in the park feature the Lettermen, a Salute to Benny Goodman, We Are The World Festival, Jack Mack and the Heart Attack, a Salute to American Composers and a Blues Festival. Also, Riders in the Sky, the Horace Heidt Jr. Big Band featuring the Ink Spots, the West Valley Symphony Orchestra Valley Symphony Orchestra could mean:
Great music, a nice venue, good people, and it doesn't cost you a dime. |
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