Fiesta Hermosa

Sometime during the week a coworker told me about Fiesta Hermosa.  As you might guess from the name, it's a festival in Hermosa Beach.  The local Chamber of Commerce ropes off several square blocks and sets up music, food and a lot of small tents.

Sunday morning we parked at a nearby high school and took a bus in.  This event is massive.  The web site says 120,000 people attend over the Memorial Day weekend.  We went a bit early and got one of the last parking places at the school.

The music was set up on The Strand (boardwalk) at the Hermosa Pier.  This particular band was playing music from Woodstock.  Right up my alley!

 

Here's the  restaurant that we like: "Silvio's".  We frequently go there for dinner and sit out front, watching the crowds go by.  It was a little too crowded this time.  In this picture, the bandstand is immediately to our right.

Just want to make sure you get the lay of the land

 A street full of booths:

 More booths (note the attractive woman in the hat)

 And more:

 And more (there she is again!)

And more (she really gets around!)

 And more

 And more (is she following me?)

 Some of the art:

In this picture, if you look WAAAY in the distance, you can see the bandstand by the ocean (blue and white stripped tent next to red tent).

 And a petting zoo!

We wandered around.  Lou stopped at 247 booths and engaged with each seller.  Most of the booths sold arts or crafts of some kind.  She bought a fanny pack, but it broke almost immediately after we got home.  That's not a fair representation of what was available though.  Unlike the booth with the fanny pack, a lot of the booths were selling locally, hand-made stuff, and a lot of it was quite attractive and interesting.

The tents were in front of stores.  In addition to art, a lot of the booths were furnished with stuff from the stores.  Also, some local business were giving small things away - like a local cab company was handing out water.  The 7-11 gave away slurpees.  The Comedy and Magic club gave away schedules.  Window replacement companies gave away hard-sells.  Chiropractors gave away "spinal exams".  An eye-glasses place would clean your glasses. 

One area was set aside for food.  There was a lot of ethnic foods and long lines.  Lou and I went to different places then met up and sat for a quick lunch.

After a bit more wandering we headed back to the bus pickup.  The line was now about a block and a half long.  Fortunately, the buses came as fast as we could get on, so we only waited about 15 minutes.  People were still streaming in.  I'm told that as it gets later it turns into a big party, and the crowd gets younger.  At the high school, people were swarming for any spots opening up.  Cars were now parked everywhere, including in the surrounding neighborhood.