Street Festival Shoppers Get the Drop on Holidays

VENTURA — Huddled under umbrellas, thousands of shoppers flocked to Ventura’s 21st annual Holiday Street Festival on Sunday, despite the late-morning rain that soaked their purchases but not their spirits.

“We come rain or shine,” said Joanne Waite of Simi Valley, who arrived with three other family members all dressed in homemade matching snowmen sweatshirts. “We’ve been coming for 17 years. It’s just a day to spend with each other and get into the Christmas spirit.”

Despite two days of powerful storms that swept through the county and a 20% chance of rain predicted for Sunday afternoon, city organizers decided not to cancel the six-block festival along Main Street.

“We didn’t have that much faith in the weather report,” said Casandra Damery, a city special events spokeswoman. “Plus, we had 500 artisans. We couldn’t just cancel. We wanted to give everyone a chance.”

Organizers can remember only one time that the more than 2-decade-old festival was canceled because of rain. Last year, about 40,000 people visited the festival, Damery said. This year, about half that number showed up.

Meteorologists predict a 30% chance of rain today, with highs in the 60s and lows in the 40s. Forecasters are predicting dense fog along the coast Tuesday and mostly clear skies through the rest of the week.

On Sunday, vendors at the Ventura festival got a brief reprieve about 1 p.m. when rain clouds made way for partly sunny skies. But the sunshine lasted less than an hour.

Artisans spent much of the day scrambling to protect their handmade Christmas ornaments, wooden knickknacks, glass figurines and other crafts under canopies and plastic tarps.

Although sales were hampered by the intermittent rain, vendors said they were pleased with the amount of business attracted by the festival, which ran from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

During the first hour, sisters Helen Linden of Valencia and Miriam Hacken of Newbury Park sold one of their personalized photo collages and collected 30 signatures on their mail-order list.

“Judging from before we got zocked in with the rain, that’s a pretty good response,” Linden said.

A few tents over, Alan Todd of Upland watched without worry as the rain fell on his topiary deer and giraffe sculptures. “Oh, the rain doesn’t hurt these a bit,” he said. “They’re made to go outside.”

The booth cost him about $135 to rent, and Todd figured he would at least triple that figure by the end of the day. Last year, he took in about $750.

Even though they did not do as well this year, vendors didn’t let the rain dampen their mood.

“We know December is always hit or miss,” said Dale Adette, who sold business card holders made out of sticks. He said he could make up for the slow sales by selling his items at the other 50 craft shows he attends during the year.

Most of the shoppers said they came to Ventura’s fair because of the quality of crafts offered at the festival.

“I do my best Christmas shopping here,” said Sue Van Camp of Oxnard, who pulled out four peacock feathers and a wooden “Wine Cellar” sign to show off her goods. “It’s the variety I like.”

Ashlee Dana, 14, of Ventura also was happy she came, even though she looked waterlogged and stood complaining to her companion about how wet and cold she was.

But her eyes lit up when she pulled out her purchases: colorful hair scrunchies and a secret gift for her mom.

“I came because I had gifts to get,” she said. “It was worth it, because now I’ll go home and light a fire.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

County Rainfall

Here are rainfall figures from the Ventura County Flood Control Department for the 24-hour period ending at 5 p.m. Sunday. Oct. 1 is the beginning of the official rain year.

*--*

Rainfall Rainfall Rainfall Normal rainfall Location last 24 hours since Friday since Oct. 1 to date Camarillo 0.04 4.53 6.08 2.74 Casitas Dam 0.08 5.71 9.28 4.29 Casitas Rec. 0.16 8.31 11.79 4.54 Center Fillmore N/A N/A N/A 3.94 Matilija Dam 0.12 4.65 9.33 4.65 Moorpark 0.00 N/A N/A 2.88 Ojai 0.24 4.45 8.35 3.77 Upper Ojai 0.24 8.11 12.83 4.07 Oxnard 0.04 3.51 7.14 2.58 Piru 0.94 N/A N/A 3.13 Port Hueneme 0.04 4.73 6.71 2.65 Santa Paula 0.08 4.18 7.51 3.49 Simi Valley 0.00 5.20 8.17 2.65 Thousand Oaks 0.04 5.99 8.88 2.87 Ventura Govt. 0.24 6.34 9.19 2.91 Center

*--*