Concerts, Crowds Kick Off L.A. Festival : Arts: Middle Eastern, African-American and African cultures are featured.

Despite some public skepticism about whether a festival celebrating African, African-American and Middle Eastern arts and culture could draw crowds in skittish post-riot Los Angeles, the first day of the 1993 Los Angeles Festival enticed a crowd of about 600 into the noonday sun Friday at Downtown’s California Plaza.

The colorful lunch hour concert featured Bukharan Jewish musicians and enough people to fill the house for a gospel tribute at the 1,020-seat Theatre No. 1 at Leimert Park’s Vision Complex. A line of hopefuls trying to buy spare tickets snaked all the way down the red-carpeted front walk.

Former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and City Councilman Joel Wachs were among the festival’s opening night patrons at a concert highlighting a 100-voice choir and local gospel legends such as the Paramount Singers and the Rev. Eugene Smallwood.

“I used to live in this neighborhood,� said Wachs, surveying the bustling street around him. “There is an extraordinary amount of arts activity here. . . .. I think the festival is going to do exactly what it is intended to do, which is to bring people to other neighborhoods to experience different cultures.�

Shops on the same block as the Vision Complex, including 5th St. Dick’s Coffee Co. and Final Vinyl used record store, were doing brisk business Friday night. Extra customers were even dropping by Melissa’s Bridal and Formal Wear, which is usually open late.

Owner Melissa Craig’s son, Jaime Craig, 17, said the festival is good not only for business, but for the neighborhood, which has undergone a recent face lift funded by the festival, the city and the Vision Complex.

“Before, there was more violence--now there’s more police,� Craig said. “More people have been coming into the shop. It’s pretty much better now.�

Earlier in the day, Michael Alexander, artistic director of California Plaza, watched as audience members flocked to the outdoor stage to shake hands with the musicians and dancers of Shashmaqam, a New York-based group that combines dance and song with instruments such as the nay (a wooden flute), the tar (a mandolin-like instrument) and the doire (a large tambourine) to create the secular and sacred music of the Central Asian steppes. The music interweaves Muslim and Jewish influences.

“This was a particularly interesting audience, one that hasn’t come to California Plaza before,� Alexander said. “There were many new faces.�

The event drew the usual assortment of area workers who knew nothing of the festival or Shashmaqam, but were having a good time anyway.

“Who is this group?� asked Bill Barrow, a Southern California Gas Co. employee who always comes to the plaza for Tuesday and Friday concerts with pals Art Washington and Michael Elaire. “We like it!�

But Ava Chaloff, a former English teacher from Inglewood, came Downtown because of a specific interest in Shashmaqam and Middle Eastern arts. “I missed the last festival entirely,� she said. “And this may be one of the few events I’ll go to.�

Audience members also came to meet the beaming Peter Sellars, artistic director of the festival, who was impossible to miss in his electric blue suit and necklace of African beads.

For the most part, the crowd ignored noisy picketers representing the Asian Pacific Labor Alliance, who staged a protest at the plaza that was unrelated to the festival, which will continue for five weeks.

The Los Angeles Festival, an offshoot of the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival, is a triennial event, now in its third incarnation. The 1987 festival, directed by Robert Fitzpatrick, focused on European artists. In 1990, the reins were taken over by producer-writer-director Sellars, who also serves as a consultant to the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Seeking to reflect the city’s diversity, the 1990 festival concentrated on the arts and culture of the Pacific Rim.

Sellars and the festival staff selected the African, African-American and Middle Eastern theme for this festival in 1990--well in advance of the 1992 Los Angeles riots and even before the Gulf War and the resultant heightened tensions between the United States and the always-volatile Middle East.

Although the festival had intended to bring in artists from all over the world as it had for previous festivals, fund-raising difficulties led festival officials to eliminate the international component and to highlight Los Angeles-based artists.