Is It a Country-Music Festival or Campaign Party for Wachs?

By RICHARD SIMON

April 4, 1987 12 AM PT

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Times Staff Writer

A country-music festival? Or a city-financed campaign party for Los Angeles Councilman Joel Wachs?

It probably will be a lot of both, as Los Angeles holds its first “Country Scene” music festival today and Sunday in the northeast San Fernando Valley.

The free event, patterned after the annual Street Scene in downtown Los Angeles, will feature Charley Pride, Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers, Mel Tillis and more than 50 other country musicians. It also will include a chili cook off, square dancing and a Wild West show, including horseback-riding and quick-draw demonstrations, plus arts and crafts booths, food and rides.

It is expected to draw between 100,000 and 200,000 people to the Hansen Dam Recreation Area in Lake View Terrace.

The festival, running from 10 a.m. to dusk both days, will showcase “the best of American country living,” said Sylvia Cunliffe, general manager of the city’s General Services Department and the festival’s producer.

But it also has been assailed as a “city-financed campaign party” for Wachs, who is co-sponsoring the event less than two weeks before he faces reelection in a new, semi-rural northeast Valley district. That criticism came primarily from Jerry Hays and others who are running against Wachs in the April 14 election.

A banner put up Friday near the entrance to the festival reads, “Welcome to Joel Wachs’ “L.A. Country Scene,” even though the official name of the festival, according to Cunliffe, is simply “Country Scene.” Cunliffe declined to comment on the banner.

Wachs Wants Credit

Wachs said Friday that he had ordered the banner put up.

“I am bringing something absolutely wonderful to the people,” he said in an interview. “I deserve the credit.”

Wachs, who plans to spend all day today and Sunday at the festival in his new cowboy boots, Levis and 10-gallon hat, said his critics “seem to be saying that if I do something good for the district, I can’t benefit from it politically. That’s nonsense.”

Wachs conceived the idea for the festival and shepherded it through the City Council.

The councilman said he proposed the festival because “it seemed like an event that would appeal to my new constituents.” In last year’s redrawing of council districts, Wachs gained an almost entirely new district, much of which has semi-rural, “horse-keeping” areas.

This weekend was selected, Cunliffe said, because many of the performers are in town for Monday night’s Academy of Country Music Awards ceremony at Knott’s Berry Farm. Among those expected to perform at the Country Scene are award nominees Randy Travis, Restless Heart, Tom Wopat, the Forester Sisters, Earl Thomas Conley and Pam Tillis.

City Expenditures

The city’s only expenditures for the festival will be $10,000 for liability insurance and an estimated $100,000 for police protection and traffic control. Wachs said the city provides the same services at events in other parts of the city, such as at the Coliseum. “This is the first time that we’re getting something in the Valley,” he said.

Organizers said that most of the remaining $186,850 cost for the event will be paid for by corporate sponsors, with radio stations KZLA and KLAC contributing $100,000. The rest of the cost will be covered by booth rentals and the sale of food and beverages.

Police officials said they do not anticipate any of the violence that has marred the 9-year-old Street Scene or the traffic and litter problems that prompted Mayor Tom Bradley to call off plans for a second Beach Scene in San Pedro. “This is a much smaller event,” Cunliffe said.

A police spokesman said that country music also draws a “more wholesome” crowd. About 150 police officers will be on hand, including the department’s mounted patrol unit, said Deputy Police Chief Ron Frankle.

Beer Sales Checked

Although beer will be sold at the festival, security officers will check “to make sure nobody under the influence is served,” Cunliffe said. Security officers also will be checking bags at entrances.

Ralph Burns, president of the Lake View Terrace Assn., said the community is looking forward to the festival.

“We can get people from the big city to find out how nice it is out here,” he said.

Parking is $2. For those who ride their horses to the festival--and indeed equestrians can ride to the festival on one of the many trails running through the park--there is no “hitching fee,” said a spokesman for the city Animal Regulation Department, which has set aside hitching posts for equestrians arriving at the festival on horseback.

Free shuttle bus service will be available to take people to the festival from surrounding areas. Buses will run along Foothill Boulevard from Polk Street to Lowell Avenue during festival hours. All buses will be marked “Country Scene Shuttle.”

For people wanting to stay overnight in campers, 200 spaces have been set aside near the Hansen Dam Golf Course, off Dronfield Avenue.

Hansen Dam can be reached via the Foothill (210) or Golden State (5) freeways to the Osborne Street exit. Take Osborne to Foothill Boulevard to enter the park.

As for Wachs’ opponent Hays, he said he plans to attend Country Scene. “I like country music myself,” he said.

1987 COUNTRY SCENETODAY’S PERFORMERS 9:15 a.m. Bonner Family

10:30 a.m. Scott Carpenter & Chuck Schumacher

Ronnie Dove

Ronnie Sessions

Trail Mix

11 a.m. Caravan Wild West Show

L.A. Fiddle Band

11:30 a.m. American Made

Byron Berline

Rich Price, The Singing Sierrans

Rag Tag Cloggers