PORT ANGELES — Ivonne Hernandez, one of the performers brought in for “Oh Canada Day” on Sunday for the Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts, was stopped and not allowed to cross the border on Saturday.
Hernandez, who was to perform with her sister, Kalissa, at 3 p.m. Sunday on the Main Stage, is a student at Berklee College of Music in Boston, festival director Anna Manildi said.
“If she had come straight up from there, it wouldn’t have been a problem, but there was a problem with her visa, leaving and then coming back,” Manildi said.
Hernandez, who hails from Victoria, had wanted to make a stop at home before performing at the festival, Manildi said.
Hernandez plays the fiddle and has been entering contests since she was 5 years old, according to her Web site.
She wasn’t sure if Kalissa would have been allowed across, but the performance was canceled when Ivonne could not make it.
Hernandez was to perform at 11:30 a.m. on the Fine Arts Stage at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, 1203 E. Lauridsen Blvd.
“We have had a lot of people who are disappointed,” Manildi said.
“But as far as I know, no one has left because of that.
“I really believe that is the beauty of a festival — although you may look forward to one particular artist, it isn’t the only thing going on.”
Phone calls the Department of Field Operations were not returned on Sunday.
Michael Bermudez, Supervisory Border Patrol Agent, said that the Border Patrol doesn’t regulate the ports of entry, so he did not know what prevented Hernandez from entering the country.
A Department of Homeland Security agent at the Port Angeles office where the MV Coho arrives declined to comment or identify herself, saying she didn’t know anything about it and that if someone were stopped, it would have been on the Canadian side of the water.
Phone calls to the office in Victoria were not answered and an answering machine did not pick up.
A phone call to Hernandez’s cell phone was not answered and did not have voice mail.
Harry Manx, a festival headliner who plays the Mohan veena, lap steel, harmonica and banjo, hurt his back so his Sunday shows were also canceled.
“We are disappointed of course, but the festival is still going well for the most part,” Manildi said.
She credited the weather, which was sunny all weekend, with the turnout.
“We sold about the same number of four-day passes — about 200,” she said.
“And as far as the rest, it is really hard to tell at this point.”
She said that the numbers wouldn’t be totalled until after the festival was over.
“I do think, just from looking around, we are about the same or perhaps just a little bit less than usual,” she said, adding that the festival usually draws between 15,000 and 18,000 people.
“One thing I’ve noticed is that the street fair and the outdoor stuff — all of the free events — are busier than ever, and inside it is really hard to tell.
“I don’t know if that will translate into people buying tickets to get in.”
She said that today’s performances should finish the festival in style.
“We really go out with a bang,” she said.
“A lot of people think that the festival is winding down on Monday, but it isn’t.
“I really think that if the weather is nice, we will have a great turnout again.”
Andy Mackie, whose foundation provides free instruments, lessons and scholarships to children who want to learn music, had a booth at the festival for the first time.
“I’ve been to this festival before, but I usually go to Folklife in Seattle this weekend,” Mackie said.
This year, he decided to do the Juan de Fuca Festival.
“I really try to spread around what I do,” he said.
“I want this to spread around to the whole world because it is so important for children to learn.”
Wendy Musiak of Federal Way brought her two children, Sophia and Benjamin, to the festival.
Sophia picked up a harmonica to learn “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”
“Now I’m going to teach him,” she said, pointing at her brother.
And that was music to Mackie’s ears.
“I tell every child that they can be my helper, that they can teach all their friends how to play,” he said.
And it wasn’t just children picking up instruments.
Roland Anderson of Port Angeles stopped by the festival and wandered into Mackie’s lessons.
“It is my goal in life to play the Norwegian National Anthem,” he said.
“I bought a violin, but I don’t know how to play it, but this looks like something I can handle,” he said, indicating the one-string instrument he purchased from Mackie.
At the Aglazing Arts booth, Betsy Wharton, Port Angeles deputy mayor, helped adults and children alike paint fish, which will be attached to the fence near City Pier.
“We’ve had a lot of people come by and paint fish,” Wharton said, adding she wasn’t positive how many had been sold so far.
“It has been a great day.”
Wharton, a Feiro center board member, is organizing the effort to mount 20,000 artistic representations of fish and other marine animals, which are sold to raise money to keep the Feiro Marine Life Center alive.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
