By Ray Huard …..More than 5,000 people are expected to converge on downtown Vista Saturday for the annual Vista Unified School District Festival of the Arts.

Student art work from every grade level from every school in the district will be on display, from the beginning work of kindergarten students to the professional level artwork of high school students, said festival organizer Anne Fennell.

The festival runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. along Vista Village Drive. 

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we have 1,000 pieces of art,” said Fennell, who heads the Performing Arts Department at Mission Vista High School. In addition to the art work, student dancers, singers, choirs, band and theatrical performances will be featured throughout the day on three separate stages.

Fennell estimated that about 800 students will participate in the performances. “We basically go back-to-back on the three stages,” Fennell said.

The performances will start at 10 a.m. with the Madison Middle School Mustang Band leading off at the Lamppost Pizza Stage.

Others performing throughout the day will include the Vista High School choirs, Rancho Buena Vista High School Ballet Folklorico, the Mission Vista High School Steel Drum 1 band, dance and theater groups from Vista Academy of Visual and Performing Arts and guitarists from Temple Heights Elementary School.

Fennell said she started the Festival of the Arts in 2003 “thinking it will help our arts program.”

Everything presented at the festival is an example of what Vista Unified students are doing daily in school, Fennell said.

“It’s really a display of student work and student classroom activities,” she said.