Sawdust Art Festival

The Sawdust Art Festival is an annual art festival, held in Laguna Beach, California from the end of June to the end of August.[1][2][3] There is also a “Sawdust Winter Fantasy” festival, running weekends from mid-November through December, and open to non-resident exhibitors.[4][5]

As the only non-juried art festival in Laguna, the Sawdust displays paintings, sculpture, printmaking, photography, glass, ceramics, jewelry, woodwork, furniture, textiles, clothing and mixed media.[6][7] The festival also features glassblowing demonstrations, ceramic center, art workshops, a children's art booth,[8] outdoor cafes, a saloon and a variety of live musical entertainment.[9][10][11]

As of 2014, the festival was drawing about 200,000 visitors each year.[12]

Sawdust booth construction

In 1965, a group of hippie-type artists were dissatisfied with the nearby Laguna Beach Festival of Arts (FOA) and its jury system, which they viewed as rigged and part of The Establishment.[13] This group held their first exhibit in 1965 on the vacant Peacock lot near Park Avenue in Laguna; it was called "The Rejects Festival" by some in the media and at the FOA.[14][15] The group held their second showing in 1967 on the Kronquist lot in north Laguna.[13][14]

In 1968, the festival moved to its present three-acre site on Laguna Canyon Road, across the street from the established FOA. At this location, Sawdust artists began building, "wildly conceived, mostly wood-built quasi-dwellings, which were heavy on the rustic theme, with no two alike." They also built a wooden, fort-like gate, and spread sawdust or wood chips onto the bare ground.[13]

While the festival in its early days had a carnival atmosphere, with streakers and religious fanatics preaching amid the booths, it was sparsely attended.[13][16] Admission was initially free; but it was raised to 25 cents in the early 1970s, “only after some locals came to chant and preach rather than look,” according to an early exhibitor.[17]

Sawdust facade, eastern end

Attendance grew and reached a peak of 350,000 in the early 1970s.[13] By the mid-1980s, the home-made booths, gate, and sawdust remained, but as the festival became more respectable, attendance fell to around 250,000.[13]

In 1985, the Sawdust spent $60,000 for a new front facade, a mock-up of the nearby Hotel Laguna and three other Laguna buildings.[13] Later, Sawdust management erected a permanent, Bavarian style facade.[15]

The Sawdust's “Benevolence Fund,” started in 1987, is a non-profit organization, assisting artists living in Laguna Beach who have, “suffered a catastrophic event, making them unable to work." This fund holds yearly fundraisers.[18][19][20]

By the late 1980s, the Sawdust was becoming a bigger tourist attraction than the Festival of Arts.[21]

By 2003, the festival had acquired professional management, was charging $5.50 for admission, had about 200,000 visitors a season, and new artists were only allowed to exhibit if they were Laguna Beach residents.[17]

By 2015, the Sawdust joined Laguna's other two festivals in offering one admission ticket for all three events.[22] Also, by 2015, several artist/exhibitors have been at the festival since its early days; they include Doug Miller,[23][24] Nikki Grant,[25] Dion Wright[17] and David Nelson.[15]

2020 & thereafter saw strict measures against the COVID-19 pandemic, including wearing masks and enforcing social distancing.

• Sawdust Art Festival