Photo by Juan Carlo
Star staff

From left, Jackson Jones, 7, Andrew Griggs, 14, and Brodie Jones, 9, ride the big slide at Camarillo's Fiesta and Street Fair.

Photo by Juan Carlo
Star staff

Donna and Ken Kimura of Thousand Oaks dance to the Dynamo Jump Band at the Camarillo Fiesta and Street Fair on Saturday.

Funnel cakes, and bumper cars and red Corvettes — they were all part of the fun Saturday at Camarillo's annual Fiesta and Street Fair.

Crowds of people braved 80-degree heat, all for the sake of celebrating the city of Camarillo's 45th birthday.

About 150 vendors lined Ventura Boulevard in Old Town Camarillo for the Camarillo Fiesta Association-sponsored event, selling crafts from tie-dyed clothing and wooden flowers to salt water taffy.

The sugary smell of funnel cakes and kettle corn wafted through the tented aisles as carnival rides whirred and whistled and people crowded under water misters.

Children had their hair and faces painted, bounced in SpongeBob SquarePants jump houses, and flung water balloons with slingshots in the Kids Fun Street section of the event.

Madison Pittman, 8, had her hair spray-painted red and blue in zebra stripes. She chose those colors "'cause it looked pretty," she said, as she ate neon green- and blue-shaved ice that matched her 5-year-old brother Colten's colored hair.

Her children love getting their hair spray-painted every year, said mom Julie Pittman of Camarillo. The event itself is kid-friendly.

"A lot of people give free samples, and the kids have a lot of fun with the games and rides," Pittman said.

For the big kids, a new feature in this year's fiesta was the car show.

Terry Christiansen of Camarillo, who's been coming to the street fair for seven years, sat in a beach chair behind his 1933 Ford Phantom.

"They (the people) seem to like it because it's unusual," Christiansen said. "There were only 1,300 of them made."

Other classic autos such as a 1954 red Corvette Roadster, a red-topped 1960 El Camino and a 1938 black-and-tan Oldsmobile dotted the closed-off Arneill Road overpass.

The Camarillo Police Citizens Patrol set up a fingerprinting booth where more than 100 parents had their children's fingerprints taken.

The volunteer group, with the help of the Ventura County Sheriff's Department, goes to events like the fiesta to make sure parents have their children's information should they be missing.

"This is probably our busiest kid-printing day this year," said volunteer Bryan McCall. "We don't have to recruit at all."

Another popular children's attraction was the spinning prize wheel sponsored by Pleasant Valley Recreation and Park District.

Kids spun the wheel in hopes of getting free swim passes, plants or seeds.

The kids love it, said Lanny Binney, recreation supervisor for the district.

"Actually, the best part is just getting out and seeing the community," Binney said.

The three-day, free event, which also includes live music from two stages, continues today from noon to 7 p.m.