Sawdust Art Festival

The Sawdust Art Festival runs concurrently with the Pageant of the Masters from early July through late August, in a permanent venue a short walk from the Irvine Bowl. More than 200 local Laguna Beach artists sell their work directly — paintings, ceramics, sculpture, jewelry, photography — in a pleasant outdoor setting of wood pavilions and sawdust-covered paths.

The work is consistently interesting and the prices are more accessible than at the upscale galleries along PCH. Demonstrations throughout the day show artists at work. The festival also runs a Winter Fantasy show in late November and early December. This is the better place to buy art in Laguna Beach if you want to actually talk to the artist.

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A story
The Sawdust Festival started in 1967 as a protest. A group of artists who had been excluded from the more established Festival of Arts set up their own competing event in a vacant lot covered in sawdust (to control the mud). The Festival of Arts had been selective about which artists it admitted; the Sawdust was open to any Laguna Beach resident. Both festivals still run simultaneously every summer, having long since made peace with their shared audience.