LAist: Santa Monica's Cultural Future to Glow

kml

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:48:21 -0800

The problem with making this all about the grunions is that they were a serendipitous addition to the event. You can trundle your butt out to beautifully dark and empty beaches at the right time and fail to see any at all. I was delighted to see them for the first time last night, and amazed that they showed up with so much light and noise on the beach. I kind of enjoyed the random nature of everything; sure, the map sorta showed an area where something might be, but it was up to you to go out and discover what kind of wonderful stuff was happening out there. The way to make this better would be to encourage more folks to come on out and show off their stuff. I absolutely agree about the parking, though. It'd be great to have more formally organized parking directions and suggestions and more info about public transportation. I wind up in Santa Monica fairly often, but never with 50,000 of my best friends at once, so it was suddenly pretty tough to figure out where to park.

GeoGambit

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 08:22:55 -0800

I went, and felt the event was mostly a disappointment. First, I couldn't believe how hard it was to get there -- the parking situation was beyond bad. The streets around Santa Monica were the worst I have ever seen them. Very little planning went into the expected rush of people. And I love the fact that public transportation to the event is confusing and next to non-existant. Second, the arts were mostly geared towards serving one person at a time. Yeah, you could have your EKG read, or get a custom poem, as long as you didn't mind waiting two hours for it, because the 44,000 other people there had the same idea. Even if the result of the art was projected, it usually wasn't that impressive. There were little to no directions posted to the exhibitions, save the program, and that wasn't particularly specific. My group wandered around for four hours and never found the sea shanty singers or some of the artworks that were promised. Then the big fountain, the best art exhibit of the night, broke down around 1:30-2:00, and the bouncy thing on the sand shut down as well. Such a let-down. Honestly, the best part of the whole night was watching the Grunions. I wish the festival focused more on them because they would be the only reason to come back the next year. Honestly, I felt the festival mentioned them as a side note. Santa Monica should really think long and hard again before hiring such incompetent planners to put on a festival. By the time I left at 2:00, there was a 15 minute wait to get off the sand and up the stairs, and everyone was talking about how terribly disappointing the event was. Anyone walking into the event asking, "How is it?" Was met by a chorus of answers ranging from, "Boring," to "It blows!" Did I have fun? Yes, because I was with good friends, and sat with them in strategic places to people watch, but it was sad to see so much public money spent in such a frivolous way, when I know there are better and more effective ways of putting that money to good use. Just put on a Grunion festival and celebrate the fish. I would accept that and have a good time. Don't make it some weird, cerebral, non-accessible festival where you have to wait in line the whole night to do anything and are confused about what the hell is happening. I would give this festival a 2/10. I will not going back next year. I will, however, visit a different part of the beach, South of Santa Monica to watch the Grunions.

Elise Thompson

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 22:57:51 -0800

It's the first event of its sort in the country, Santa Monica officials say... It's a quote. If you have a beef, take it up with Santa Monica city officials. Maybe it's the first one on a pier. Maybe it's the first one with a Neptunian lair. I, for one, will be too busy partying with the gang singing sea shanties all night to give a damn!

michael

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:29:05 -0800

And how are you judging that?

milquetoast

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:39:04 -0800

The first one that means anything; is consequential...

michael

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:47:43 -0800

First in the country ever? Chicago has for the last two years done "Looptopia" an all night arts and music fest, also based off the nuit blance festivals.