Orange Fair Serves Up a Melting Pot

Last year, Orange County artist Marshall Feduk attempted to get a documentary made about the annual Orange International Street Fair. He couldn’t raise the money in time, however--and that turned out to be just fine with local law enforcement officials. They worried that a film extolling the virtues of the city’s already teeming event might increase attendance to unmanageable levels.

A celebration of cultural diversity, the Orange International Street Fair--which unfolds Friday through Sunday--has been attracting about 500,000 people a year. Last year, the three-day event corralled an estimated 700,000 visitors. Feduk attributes the boost to ideal weather conditions and the cancellation of another Labor Day weekend festival in Huntington Beach.

Feduk, the fair’s publicity chairman, believes the event is typical of the general goodwill that exists among various groups in the American melting pot. But isolated examples of ethnic or racial discord get more attention from the news media, he contends. That’s one reason he wanted a documentary on the multiethnic harmony at the Orange fair, which offers food, entertainment, and arts and crafts booths.

“I don’t think the street fair gets the proper [media] exposure,” Feduk says. “The ethnic harmony that exists is not pushed enough by the media. There was supposed to be a white supremacist meeting at an restaurant in Orange recently. The media attention was phenomenal, and that meeting never occurred. Here we’re getting positive results, and we’re not getting that attention.”

The fair originated in 1910 as a one-time event. In 1973, Orange Mayor Jess Perez decided to revive the festival as a celebration of Orange County’s growing ethnic diversity. The event has been held annually ever since.

“The fair has always been a celebration of humankind and an appreciation of people from different backgrounds,” Feduk says. “It’s an opportunity for people to celebrate their own culture under the roof of the United States.”

Fifteen cultures are represented at the street fair, among them Dutch, Mexican, Irish, German and Polynesian. Asian and Arab groups will also be among those occupying a section of a street in Old Town Orange, offering ethnic food and sometimes crafts and entertainment.

Greek Street is one of the livelier sections. In this area, there’s dancing to the traditional Greek music of a band called the Hellenic Sounds.

“There are groups of people that love Greek music and follow the Hellenic Sounds wherever they play,” says John Ohanian, chief organizer of the Greek Street area. “Some people are very good dancers, but it’s line dancing, which is very easy for anyone to jump in there and follow the steps.”

When the music stops, Ohanian says, the lines at the four Greek food booths nearby start growing. Greek shish kebab, gyro (a beef and pork mix served on pita bread) and pastries are offered.

The street fair includes a main stage and eight smaller performance areas. This year, the Fenians, a local band that plays Celtic-flavored music, will be one of the top attractions. They perform on the main stage Friday night between 7 and 9 p.m.

Not everything is ethnic-specific. There’s also an All-American Street, featuring distinctly American food and entertainment, such as performances by an Elvis Presley impersonator and a ‘50s-oriented rock band.

“The people operating the [60 arts and crafts] booths are more diverse than the products sometimes,” observes Feduk. “There are Indian products, glass blowing, artists taking dried gourds and making art of them. There’s a person who makes and sells weather vanes, and another person who makes art out of egg cartons.”

Orange International Street Fair President Marsha Zembower says the event organizers try to make the celebration as family-friendly as possible and avoid entertainment that might attract overly rowdy revelers.

A children’s village is also offered every year. Kids can get their faces painted, make jewelry, play games, listen to storytelling and enjoy other forms of entertainment throughout the weekend.

All proceeds from the booths go to nonprofit organizations. For example, money earned from the Greek booths helps support the St. John’s Greek Orthodox Church in Anaheim.

This year, an Orange County restaurant that makes Louisianan doughnuts will help Canyon High School in Anaheim Hills raise money for its baseball team. The Orange International Street Fair is run by over 3,000 volunteers.

“What compels me personally to get involved in the fair is that I love to be able to help all these nonprofits make some money,” Zembower says. “A lot of these nonprofits are schools and small organizations and this is their main fund-raising event of the year. I like being part of that.”

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Orange International Street Fair, Old Town Orange, east on Chapman Avenue from either the 5 or 57 freeways. Friday, 5-10 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Free. (714) 532-6260.