TIJUANA – This municipality marks its 122nd birthday on Monday but far from reaching for the rocking chair, the city is getting its second wind.

Nowhere was that more evident than in Saturday's annual "Opera in the Street Festival," where an estimated 15,000 jammed a historic barrio to enjoy a variety of classical musical presentations.

Mayor Carlos Bustamante will mark the city's founding with a public event Monday at 9 p.m. in the central patio of City Hall.

But anniversary events actually started Wednesday, with a recital by Tijuana's iconic rock guitarist Javier Batiz and the Baja California Orchestra, and will continue for another month as the city government, cultural institutions and business organizations host public events to celebrate the milestone.

On Saturday, the Festival Ópera en la Calle drew thousands of people to colonia Libertad's Fifth Street, which had been turned into a replica of an Italian village.

There were so many people, in fact, that at times it was hard to take a step along the street and many scrambled to find a seat to watch the presentations by the more than 200 opera singers, dancers and classical musicians who participated.

The turnout has grown so much that organizers are considering moving the event next year to avenida Revolución, said José Medina, the artistic director of the Opera Company of Tijuana and of the festival.

Medina called the street festival "a giant step" toward encouraging people, particularly children, to choose to listen "La Traviata" or any other opera.

Festival-goers heartily applauded the Tijuana Youth Symphony, led by Pavel Getman, which interpreted selections of Mozart's "The Magic Flute," and the Youth Lyric Ensemble, in charge of José Medina, which presented the second act of Puccini's "La Boheme."

The Baja California Dance Company, led by Raúl Martínez Tadeo, drew raves for their cantata "Carmina Burana" by Carl Orff, as did tenor Marco Antonio Labastida and soprano María Lozano, who performed selections from "The Phantom of the Opera" by Andrew Lloyd Weber.

The festival's emotional high points, however, were the performances by the San Diego-based Japanese drum group Taiko Ensemble, led by Kathy Fuller and John Iversen; by the dance group from Lázaro Cárdenas High School; and the presentation of the complete opera "Cavallería Rusticana" by the Opera Company of Tijuana.

Gilberto García, a 63-year-old businessman, said it was important for the festival to become a Tijuana tradition.

"We all like mariachi, banda, whatever, but it's good to have this cultural alternative," he said. "I'm especially glad because they are creating a new audience. There are so many children who today are seeing something that we never had the opportunity to see when we were kids."

Andrea García contributed to this story.