Inaugural World's Fair at First Fridays in Bixby Knolls honors 1967 Long Beach fair bid

Perhaps you’ll recall, if you’re old enough to be working your way through your second or third AARP membership card, that Long Beach was right on the brink of hosting a gigantic World’s Fair in 1967. It was so close that a lot of us have “commemorative” medallions set in Lucite, nice souvenirs for something that never happened. It was cancelled for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was Long Beach’s inability to talk others into helping pay for the perhaps overly ambitious multi-cultural bash, which was to have been held on Pier J and was to have been the third largest World’s Fair, behind Flushing Meadows, New York in 1964 and Brussels, Belgium, in 1958.

So, yeah, dreams die. But Bixby Knolls Biz Improvement Executive Director Blair Cohn and his team of imagineers sometimes bring them back to life a little bit. They’ve dug up the bones of the dead World’s Fair and are dragging them uptown to Atlantic Avenue for the inaugural World’s Fair at First Fridays this evening from 6:30 to 9:30 between Bixby Road and San Antonio Drive.

Up and down Atlantic, you’ll find the whole world: dancers from Grupo Folklorico, Bollywood, Maha & Company from CALB, the Lyons Academy of Irish Dance, the Long Beach Japanese Ondo group and the Homeland Cultural Center; food at the local restaurants from Mexico, Italy, Thailand, China, Jordan, Japan and Lebanon; local cultural organizations; a 2016 Summer Olympics Kickoff with the Bixby Knolls Ruers making a circuit carrying the World’s Fair torch; and a lot more, which, in this case, is highlighted by a performance of the Beatles’ “Revolver” LP, which is what comes up in any meaningful discussion of the best Beatles album.

More! The new high-end Goodwill store Edgar & James will pop up for a preview of their wares, A Castle of Books is having a big moving sale and you’re going to want to catch a bit of the brilliant busker Billy Rose’s performance at Trader Joe’s.

Latino Comics

The Latino Comics Expo (LCX), dedicated to Latino comics creators, brings together vets of the trade and newcomers showing off and selling their books, prints and posters today through Sunday at the Museum of Latin American Art, 628 Alamitos Ave.

Admission is $10; $7 for seniors and students; and free for MOLAA members and kids under 12 on Friday and Saturday. It’s free for everyone on Sunday.

Hours all three days are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.