By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society
At the recent opening of the Historical Society’s new exhibit of memorabilia from past Sausalito Art Festivals, exhibit curator Jim Scriba gave a brief oral history of how the festival blossomed and morphed over six-plus decades following its founding in 1952. His comments brought back a flood of memories from my days as a festival volunteer.
The Sausalito Chamber of Commerce took over production of the Festival from 1982-1999, as a fundraiser for community organizations. A friend and neighbor from the floating homes community, Suzanne Dunwell, was running the Chamber at the time and managing the festival was one of her responsibilities.
Suzanne had proven a creative producer by helping to pioneer the floating homes tour and organizing two Humming Toadfish festivals in the 1980s. The festivals celebrated a particularly noisy fish that built nests on the hulls of floating homes and then croaked all night long to attract mates. For a couple of years, the noise, which kept some houseboaters awake all night, was a hotly debated mystery until John McCosker of the Steinhart Aquarium sleuthed out the true culprits. Suzanne and others realized that when faced with a problem like this, the best approach was to make lemonade out of lemons, so they created a festival with micro-brewery booths, a toadfish kazoo band, and lots of wacky costumes. The festival attracted national media attention, of the “only in Marin” variety.
One of Suzanne’s Art Festival innovations was to arrange for a ferry to come from the City directly to the Army Corps of Engineers dock, making it fun and easy for tourists to visit the Festival. Each morning, she would drive me and her husband Steve to Fisherman’s Wharf where we’d set up shop and sell tickets for two ferry departures each morning. Then we’d board the second departing ferry and have the rest of each day to enjoy the art, music, food, and drinks of the festival.
Suzanne eventually moved on and later the Art Festival Foundation was formed to oversee what had become a nationally recognized artistic showcase.
In the 90s, I joined the Mayor’s Select Blue Ribbon Garbage Committee and proudly wore a succession of Garbage t-shirts, which tourists occasionally offered to buy right off my back. The committee was headed by Robin Sweeny, Sausalito’s first female mayor who served four terms before retiring. Robin worked tirelessly yet cheerfully every day of the Festival for many years. Her efforts were rewarded when one visitor commented, “This place is cleaner than Disneyland.”
While the Festival is currently dark, the Foundation remains active, and has agreed to serve as art curator for the Mill Valley Music Festival this May 13 and 14.
The Historical Society exhibit is on the top floor of City Hall, and is open to the public Mondays and Wednesdays from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. and the second and fourth Saturdays of the month, 12-3 p.m.
PHOTO FROM SAUSALITO ART FESTIVAL ARCHIVES
Food booths were operated by local nonprofits during the Festival’s heyday.