Sawdust’s role at the festival

Organizers expect this year’s Sawdust Art & Craft Festival to attract more than 200,000 visitors.

According to festival lore, after artists began to spread sawdust on the ground to combat dust and mud at the Laguna Canyon Road property, the media dubbed it the “Sawdust Festival.”

The name has identified the show for decades.

Before the monthlong show, artists build a village of individual booths from the ground up. Once the booths are finished, the landscaping is installed and the sawdust is scattered.

According to event coordinators, the sawdust is not measured by weight but by cubic yards. On June 15, Apollo Wood of Fontana, one of Southern California’s largest wood recyclers, spread 130 cubic yards of sawdust on the grounds.

The sawdust is replaced every season.

— Kathleen Luppi