Around Fountain Valley: Community springs into summer with four-day festival
Fountain Valley's four-day, kickoff-to-summer event returns this week, as Summerfest will take over Fountain Valley Sports Park from Thursday through Sunday.
The community festival, which debuted in 2009, regularly takes place during the third week of June. It saw more than 21,000 people attend the event in 2021, when it was one of the first activities to be offered following the coronavirus pandemic.
Schools are out, and so is the sun — albeit with moderate temperatures expected to fall into the low 70s. Those comfortable conditions could aid efforts to keep attendance up this year.
Ride discounts will be offered at $3 per attraction on Thursday, when the festival hours will be between 5 and 10 p.m. Fan Halen, a Van Halen cover band, will rock the main stage beginning at 8 p.m.
Rob Frizzelle, the city's director of community services, said Friday night will have a country theme to it. The entertainment includes Kenny and Luke's Country Beach Party from 6 to 7:30 p.m. and Dirt Road: The Jason Aldean Experience from 9 to 11 p.m.
The opening ceremony will take place at 8 p.m. on Friday, with the national anthem being performed by Miss Fountain Valley. There will also be a dragon dance, Frizzelle said.
Friday's festivities, which run from 5 to 11 p.m., will also feature a fireworks display, and it will be $5 beer and wine night.
'We do have a main stage with some really cool entertainment, but we also have something called a community stage, and we invite out the schools and local entertainment acts to come perform,' Frizzelle said. 'It's free for them to perform, and so we have a community stage for anybody looking for that opportunity to present in front of a large crowd all weekend at Summerfest. … Typically, the schools and a lot of community groups come out and perform, and it's really fun for them to have that opportunity.'
Community groups and nonprofits also have a chance to host food booths to raise money for their organizations, provided that they submit an application to participate as a vendor.
Summerfest continues Saturday from 3-11 p.m., and it concludes on Sunday from 2-8 p.m. The final act will be a local favorite in the Tijuana Dogs, with their set starting at 6 p.m.
'They're a local group that has a huge following here in Fountain Valley,' Frizzelle said. 'They pretty much are always the headliner on Sunday night.'
Free parking is available. General admission is $5 for those who are 5 years and older
Fountain Valley Sports Park, the community's central gathering place, will also be hosting concerts in the park each Thursday in July.
The Original Lobster Festival is scheduled to return from Sept. 5-7.
Former Fountain Valley police chief Kevin Childe has died, the city's police department said in a news release on social media on Monday.
Childe, a graduate of Los Amigos High, started his career in law enforcement with the Fountain Valley police department in 1990. He was appointed as police chief in 2017, a position he held until his retirement in 2019.
In addition to his time with the police force, Childe also served six years in the Marine Corps. His service time included deployments to the Middle East and Moscow.
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The festival admission to the festival does not include access to the amphitheater, but it includes access to the rest of the festival park, where you're going to find bands like Cake, like Loud Luxury, like Gary Clark, Jr. We are so excited about that show. And you'll hear me say that again and again, because it's absolutely true. And as a music fan, you know, you're excited you get to come to work. On our poster, you have Baby Metal, Chicago and Porter Robinson, all kind of in the same place, which again, just speaks to how rare our lineup is. And the accessibility of that is you can come to the festival for the price of 30 bucks. And then the other piece of that, which really makes us stand out, I believe, is as a nonprofit organization, we do this so that we can continue to provide access to this world -class place, this world -class lineup. And then 20 percent of our fans come in free above and beyond that low ticket price. So, it's pretty unique, I think we're one of one. We can't find anything else quite like it. Baltin: Milwaukee is synonymous with Summerfest the same way Jazz Fest is New Orleans. Pancheri: That's high praise. We appreciate that. Thank you, I tend to believe that the people that do this work, it is very special and really takes a lot of dedication, and I know the folks in New Orleans as well as everyone that works really hard at what they do. And so, it's high praise to say that, and when you go back to the roots of the event, the idea that at the time there were massive breweries of beer. And so, the tradition of coming together and celebrating music as well as gathering around, at the time it was Schlitz, Papst, and Miller. It was a great reason to put on display all that Milwaukee and music had to offer in the summertime. Baltin: Talk about the site. Pancheri: Over the past 20 years, we put over $160 million into improving this site, which really does make it that special place. 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So, stepping into the role now and really the dynamic nature of this industry, as you well know, it's changing every day. We're making sure that we're remaining current and maintaining that variety while also adding some of these new artists that are coming out. In addition to considering how we're going to use this park, how we're going to continue to expand what the use is, and highest and best use of this beautiful facility is, and how do we continue to enhance the Summerfest experience. So, last year, we started adding some art installations. We're looking at continuing to do that. We continue to push our value proposition. When someone new comes to the festival park and experiences Summerfest, someone who's never been here before, they're genuinely blown away with the value as well as just the variety of music here. 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