Keep Focus on Festival, Not Feud

It is hard to picture the Festival of Arts anywhere other than Laguna Beach, and it is hard to imagine Laguna Beach without the festival on its calendar. The city and its visitors have a strong interest in ending a dispute over the rent. This is a landlord and tenant conflict in which there is a public interest beyond the contesting parties.

A debate that began over whether the festival was paying the city too much was transformed into a battle of wills. Like many family feuds, the contention has overtaken the original dispute, and partisans aren’t always sure what they are quarreling over. This is a family dispute that ought to be resolved by identifying the shared values and community objectives that have made the festival special. This event has 68 years of tradition in a region where history is often what happened a decade ago.

Others luring the festival with enticements, as San Clemente has done, no doubt have things to offer. If the dispute can’t be fixed, then suitors offering larger venues or more parking and support ought to have a chance. But none of this should happen before efforts to patch the family feud are exhausted. Both the festival and the city have to clarify what’s really important.

The flirtation with moving the festival, whose lease expires in September 2001, has brought one thing into focus. Festival leaders are looking to redefine the mission and obtain some big capital improvements at the Laguna Canyon Road site. Some of this has raised questions within the artistic community. The board needs to be careful that ambitions do not alter the character of the festival, or create an urgency to relocate that may not have been intended.

The city appears to have room to negotiate, beginning with the rent. It apparently is accustomed from previous years to a period of posturing before getting serious. This time, there’s a different kind of momentum. It should heed the concerns from the festival about a need to make some improvements, and find a way to give the festival more say over how revenue generated by volunteers is allocated.

All these are legitimate concerns. All sides should keep the big picture in mind--what the festival has meant to Orange County, and what kind of place Laguna will be.