Guy Kitchens / Special to The Star Larry Cossid, right, plays the baritone saxophone while Lee Silver plays the alto sax during the Camarillo Art & Jazz Festival in Camarillo.

A few thousand art and music lovers strolled through Camarillo's typically languid downtown on Saturday, as the city's second annual Art & Jazz Festival moved into high gear on its busiest day.

Eight bands played on two downtown stages during the morning and afternoon, followed by an evening concert at CSU Channel Islands featuring saxophonist Eric Marienthal. The festival wraps up today with another art show downtown and a concert at 2 p.m. at the Camarillo Ranch House with singer Christine Day.

Until last year, Camarillo had an art festival every summer and a separate jazz festival at CSUCI. The university, the city and the Chamber of Commerce brought the events together last year, and the combined festival has been a bigger success than either could have achieved separately, said Chamber President Tom Kelley.

"We're thrilled with it," he said. "We want to make it a tradition, and really establish Camarillo as an arts place."

The city is on its way, said Sherri Cassell, a local artist who was showing her pastels Saturday at the FastFrame shop on Ventura Boulevard. Cassell, an artist in residence at CSUCI's Studio Channel Islands Art Center, was one of 15 "featured artists" showing works at stores along the boulevard.

"It's nice to be able to have this kind of exhibit in your hometown," she said. "Ventura always has this kind of thing downtown, or Santa Barbara. It might be somebody's first exposure to art. People who wouldn't go to an art gallery will go to an art walk like this."

Events like the Art & Jazz Festival are also important, Kelley said, because they get people walking around in Old Town Camarillo and expose them to the district's new businesses.

"Today's been a really good day for us," said Terri Ortega, the co-owner of a women's clothing store called Heiress.

The store moved from Fillmore to Old Town Camarillo in May and is already doing more business because there's more foot traffic in Camarillo, Ortega said.

Kelley said he expected the evening concerts on both Saturday and Sunday to sell out, or at least come close. Eilleen Richards of Somis, who's been coming to the downtown art walk and jazz festival since they were separate events, said she hoped to grab tickets to one of the shows so her friends visiting from Ireland could see Ventura County at its best.

"We've just had a great time" at the afternoon concerts and art shows, she said. "The music's great, the art's great, and the weather's beautiful."