FRONTIER DAYS EVENT SCRAPPED AFTER 32 YEARS; JULY 4 CARNIVAL TO TAKE ITS PLACE.

Byline: Stacy Brown and Patricia Farrell Aidem Daily News Staff Writers

When the 32nd annual Frontier Days festival was held last year, it might as well have been named the Final Frontier Days.

The head of the Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce confirmed Thursday the Old West heritage carnival has been canceled, replaced by a one-day Fourth of July festival at the Saugus Speedway.

Since 1964, the festival had been held on various fairgrounds in Canyon Country, and sometimes stretched over as many as 11 days. Last year, the event was moved from October to July and attendance plummeted in 100-degree weather.

The cancellation upset advocates of the city's east-side merchants, who relied on Frontier Days as a local promotion. The move came after the Canyon Country and Santa Clarita Valley chambers of commerce united under the latter's name.

``I'm not a bit surprised they've given up Frontier Days, the idea was to help bring business to downtown Canyon Country,'' lamented Councilwoman Jill Klajic.

She said the small town-style festival had lost its character under the united chamber and had become too commercialized.

``Once Santa Clarita's chamber took it over, the small retailers were left out. Big businesses benefited with lots of promotions, but the small shop owners were neglected,'' Klajic said.

The festival, which featured children's games, carnival rides and chili cook-offs, made for great family fun, according to Canyon Country business owner Dennis Farnham.

``Every time you put on an event it shouldn't be with the idea of making money,'' said Farnham, a former Canyon Country chamber president and owner of a security firm. ``It was for the people of the community, I would see folks there that I hadn't seen all year. I'm very disappointed that it's gone.''

Leigh Engdahl, the chamber's chief executive officer, said the July 4 show is what residents want, and noted it was expensive to prepare fairgrounds for events like Frontier Days.

Along with the fireworks show, the fair will feature Captain Cardiac and the Coronaries, a popular music band that specialize in tunes from the 1950s and '60s, according to Terri Burbank of the Saugus Swapmeet, a sponsor of the event.

She also said the chamber is making a strong effort to involve Canyon Country's merchants, noting a committee exists for just that purpose.