The Sawdust Art Festival started in the mid-1960s as a reaction to — or a “rebellion,” as one of the participating artists put it — Laguna Beach’s more uppity Festival of the Arts, home to the long-running living-pictures show known as the Pageant of the Masters. Today, it’s a professionally-run affair, a place to hang and drink and dine as much as it is to explore handmade art.
And in the winter, its hippie edge is arguably softened a little more. For that’s when Santa Claus moves in for five weekends throughout November and December.
But no matter, if Sawdust is no longer a feisty little upstart it once was, it’s still a home for anything-goes, left of center art. More enticing: To step into Sawdust is to wander into a theme park-like world of winding paths covered in wood chips, one where artists booths are fashioned as mini cottages and every turn is full of surprises — psychedelic ceramic mushrooms nest around one bend, a waterfall and a concert stage around another.
Sawdust is an artist-filled wonderland, and never is that more apparent than during its Winter Fantasy event, which will wrap Dec. 21. Christmas lights glisten, a communal tree beckons to be decorated and a marionette handler wanders the grounds. Artist booths place an emphasis on smaller, gift-ready items — think ornaments, colorful candy dishes, mini plates designed to nest a wine bottle — but Sawdust’s Winter Fantasy stops just short of going full holiday party, as this is still an art-driven event where one can join a pop-up ceramic class or crowd around a table and connect with strangers for a painting session…