RanchoFest Opens With Moment of Silence—Then Rocks

RanchoFest, after a one-year hiatus, opened Friday eventing at Central Park with a moment of silence, then went full-on rock-n-roll.

Mayor Tony Beall, with Rancho Santa Margarita Chamber of Commerce president Suzanne Singh to his left, asked the audience assembled in front of a stage set up at Central Park, to remember Marines Sgt. Wade Wilson, who died two weeks ago while serving in Afghanistan for the city's adopted 2nd Battalion 5th Marine Regiment, and Cpl. Jordan Stanton, a resident who was killed in the same Helmand Province area last year.

Then, an electric guitar version of the Star Spangled Banner from Beall's teenage son, Rocko.

After the band Side Project performed, a Beatles tribute band called Britain's Finest took the stage and, as Ed Sullivan would say, put on a really big show, highlighting the Fab Four as young British invaders, and then members of Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and finally a band on the outs. They were realistic, but there was no Yoko Ono to be found.

, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. More than a hundred vendors and nearly a dozen bounce houses and various Fun Zone type of attractions, will be set up.