Bonjour, Laguna Beach!
The two sister cities are tourist magnets that hug sun-kissed stretches of coastline.
Laguna Beach is an ocean and continent away from its French sister, Menton, which the last stop on the French Riviera before the Italian border.
Every spring, Menton celebrates La Fête du Citron (the Lemon Festival), where floats made or decorated with lemons and oranges parade through. And every summer, the people of Menton, as well as the rest of the Francophone world, ring in the summer solstice with the annual Fête de la Musique (Music Festival).
On Saturday afternoon, musicians, singers and dancers will mark Laguna Beach’s now 5-year-old sister city relationship with Menton by fanning out around Laguna to perform their own version of the Fête de la Musique. The performers will positioning themselves in highly-trafficked streets, art galleries and other strategic points about town, organizers said.
“It’s about music of all kinds being performed by professionals and nonprofessional musicians and singers, and it’s happening all over the world on the same day,” said Karyn Philippsen, president of the Laguna Beach Sister City Assn.
No dignitaries from Menton are expected at the three-hour festival’s opening ceremony at Main Beach, which is scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m., but Terri Gans, an official from the French Consulate in Los Angeles, will be on hand.
The festival will get underway after remarks by Philippsen and Gans. Jenny Wang will sing “The Star Spangled Banner” and Lisa Morrice accompanies herself on the guitar in singing “La Marseillaise,” the French national anthem.
Twitter: @ImranVittachi