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The permit for the festival's street closure signed on August 20, 2008 | Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist
As with years past, the Sunset Junction Street Festival has been somewhat of a contentious point between the community and well, let's face it, the small part of the community that puts this event on.
Past issues have revolved around basics like parking, traffic and noise, but the more heated debates have been over the entrance fee. Is it a donation? Is it free? Are you forced to pay the $20 to get in?
In 2006 and before, all the Sunset Junction Festivals that had an entrance fee were by donation (although, many claim they were forced to pay even after asking about the donation). Then the festival organizers wanted the fee to be mandatory and the city said that was fine, but they would no longer waive fees like police overtime, street closures, etc. That's when last year's festival became a new beast in regards to the mandatory entrance admission.
Still, the above document signed by festival organizer Michael McKinley on August 20th of this year, states that "admission to an event may not be charged; and the public at large may not be denied access to any portion of any street except in cases of an emergency."
At the festival when presented with this information, a supervisor from the Sunset Junction Neighborhood Alliance said they were not honoring the petition and one of the nonprofit's board member said that McKinley didn't read what he was signing (he was busy and hurried) and that the city gave them an older form to sign without the current language.
According to Mitch O'Farrell of Councilman President Eric Garcetti's office, this document is signed for every festival in the city that takes place on a street and that it is the current form and language. However, he said while that form in theory should have allowed patrons to be let into the festival for free if they asked, that "it's time to get clarity [from the City Attorney's Office if this is consistent with law]... we'll be doing that right away."
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I'm not sure if this is true, but I was told that the owner of Stella was 'pissed at the promoter and letting people into the event for free through his building.'
Thank you, LAist. This is the primary reason why the Militant has a problem with the Sunset Junction Street Festival.
emoney, it's true and I have a photo that will be posted later in another article bout the festival and the business owners.
However, there was a wall of security guards checking braclets at Sanborn stopping people who got into the festival south of that street.
I'm with you Militant.
$20 bucks just to get in so that you can then pay for over priced food, beverages, and ATM machines seems like a real rip.
I didn't go this year, and the last couple of years I only went because I got to table for California Clean Money and was able to get in free.
The vendors who pay for booth space must feel a bit ripped off as well when you consider that a $20 entrance fee means that attendees are going to have less to spend on concessions.
Will there be an Eagle Rock Music Festival this year? Last year was great--and free!
I always knew that sunset junction was doing a lot of dirty work to get what they wanted.
Sunset Junction has jumped the shark.
I went back in 1998 and 1999 and it was great.
I went again last year and vowed to never go back.
Weston Deboer: According to the Militant's O.G. Silver_Lake operatives, that ish has been going on for quite a while. They describe the organizer's handling of the community as "quasi-Mafiesque behavior."
I just e-mailed Eric Garcetti asking for an explanation of how this could happen and where the $20.00 entrance fees are going.
Here is the e-mail if you want to ask too:
councilmember.garcetti@lacity.org
it was a disappointing junction. the community spirit that founded the event 25+ years ago is no longer there since its become a music festival with an admitance fee. the neighborhood stays away. the organizers seem to hate the merchants and the neighbors. really depressing.
$20 is a bit much for an entrance fee and expensive beers. I voted no confidence as well.
Could this become a CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT for the people who paid $20.00 to get in?
I think anyone who paid $20.00 should be eligible for a refund!
$20.00?
wow, thats just dumb.
glad I didn't go this year. I would love to know who gets the cash from this.
But, it does go to show, that maybe Los Angeles needs more festival type things.
Aye to that, Tom Andrews. I considered going, looked up the entrance fee (as in, if there was one at all), saw it was $20 and said No más. I used to go every year but $20 to walk the streets and give local vendors my business is just stupid.
@thegodofthor
If the estimated $50,000 actually came and all paid $20, that's one million dollars.
I'm glad I didn't go this year. It seems Sunset Junction (like a lot of other cool events) has become to big for it's own britches and has succumbed to the almighty dollar. To bad.
Interesting to see Garcetti's office acting on this. But if Eric & Company is pretending this is a new issue then its being as disingenuous as McKinley. The sense I've gotten from CD-13 in past fests was one of shruggy resignation.
I live on one of the streets closed off by the festival and have mixed feelings. While I love a good festival, this has gotten way to expensive and crowded. I hate that on Sunset Junction weekend I don't have any access to local businesses... unless I pay $20 to get through. Even to get a cup of coffee/tea in the morning I would have to hop in a car (or on my bike, because of the massive traffic) and go a mile or two to some cafe outside the craziness.
And it's especially annoying to have 10 people hunting for street parking ask "Hey, are you leaving?" while I'm watering my plants.
Good investigative journalism, Zach!
Stop yur bitching. Its once a year. And contrary to everyone who DIDNT go and are bashing this years fest...I DID go and had an amazing time. I was even at Malo for most of the day. Why would you PAY for drinks tickets for shity beer and crap (fake) margaritas from the fest when your surrounded by bars? The bands were great this year too. It should be $15. But Id rather have it there every year than not.
What is wrong with LA?
I always wondered why southern California seems incapable of having inexpensive streetfairs while San Francisco has no problem holding some of the largest in the world for low suggested donations (SF Pride, Haight Street festival, Folsom, etc.)
Sunset Junction, LA Pride, and Long Beach Pride all charge $20 fees (not donations) and offer very little for it.
The only free streetfair I've seen in LA was the Thai New Year, which I think was underwritten by the Thai government.
This is a systemic problem and not just isolated to Sunset Junciton.
Anyone have some insight?
rdm24: Um, you obviously don't go to enough street fairs.
But most are organized by non-profit organizations, who require sponsorships from various sources. The Songkran Thai New Year event in April was sponsored not only by the Royal Thai Consulate but by Singha Beer, Thai Airways, local Thai American media outlets and others. you obviously have little knowledge of how ethnic communities function, so the Militant will just leave it at that.
well I dind't want to pay and i overheard some neighbors talking about how you didn't have to so i went up to the entrance where they were selling tickets and asked if it was just a donation or if i had to pay 20$ and they said you had to for the music part past a certain street but if i wanted to just go in for the shops on the street i could go in without paying. so we did!
but then i wanted to pass through the part where the music was and the staff asked to see my wristband and i showed i didn't have one so i had to turn back.
but then 10 min later i snuck through by the porta potties and ran in to go see a free show by kinky! woo hoo! haven't paid for sunset junction ever and this is my third time going.
free or nothing at all i say! ha
kinkos
Militant,
Your response feels like a personal attack, and I'm not sure why that was warranted. Maybe that's what "millitant" refers to?
I know I haven't been to enough street fairs in LA, but I do know that quite a few of them charge a lot to enter, unlike any other city I have lived in. (I'm using "city" broadly, because this applies to other street fairs in socal outside LA proper.) The way Sunset Junction used to be (small suggested donation) is still the way most fairs operate in New York, Boston, and San Francisco.
I don't know why this is the case. I assume that the county government here makes extra demands so that fairs must pass costs on to participants. But I don't know if that's really true, and I was hoping someone on this thread might know.
On the plus side, LA seems to have lots of art walks which are free, popular, and go off without a hitch.
Man... Why are people so easily taken from one place to another like sheep. Nobody asked an explanation when they were paying the $20? Is all LA becoming like that? That whole Sunset area is a rip-off of NYC anyway.
While I didn't ask what specifically the money from this event was going to, I did ask what the Sunset Junction Neighborhood Alliance, the nonprofit that ran this event, does as a service entity.
The answer: youth soccer, sunset junction area murals, the Tsunami Cafe/youth training program within the cafe.
Take it for what it's worth and run with it. I know some people would not be very satisfied with this, especially the murals one.
I don't know about the 20 USD entrance fee but I can testify as to how unbelievably loud it was. I was way over at north end of Echo Park on a hill above Riverside Drive and I could hear the music there - LOUD. That is two miles away as the crows flies over two or three ridges. I cannot image how loud it was in Dayton Heights or Silver Lake.
Zach - it's very funny that O'Farrell makes the comment about checking with the city attorney.
According to Josh Kamensky in his comments two years ago on b.la on a post I made there, they DID check:
http://la.metblogs.com/2006/08/11/sunjun-street-fair-open-issues/
Really all that needs to be done here is change the laws. If you don't like that some guy can shut down the street and not be accountable for where the money goes, go to city council and propose some oversight. I hear a lot of bitching, year after year the week before and the week after, but nothin' ever happens.
i used to love sunset junction. the mandatory donations left a sour taste in my mouth, but i went anyway.
what has permanently turned me off from the festival is all that they claim their proceeds go to. the school i work at is listed on their website as a recipient of their money. i smell bs. i've asked around--to those who are responsible for receiving community donations, to those who are responsible for program funding, even to those responsible for running the flippin' school--and no one could tell me that we received their money.
if they're a non-profit, like they claim, they need open their books to the community.
typetive, I agree nothing will come of this Eric Garcetti will continue to be silent and continue to be a council member.
Only your vote will be heard!
People don't get involved, there will be another batch of people willing to pay $25.00 next year!
I refused to pay $20.00 and I was not let in even though I live down the street!
Party on Silver Lake!
this is exactly why i did not attend this weekend
so...for the first 26 years of the festival...seems they never had a problem holding the festival the year after on a donation basis....
are they going to use gas prices for this too?
or is it that they need money to pay for the bands and their accomidations now that they are attracting nationally known acts.
id like to see a report of how much the enterance fee made this year and how much was made in 2006.
I don't understand how this is still going on! After getting into a verbal arguement with this Michael charachter last year on the phone (about their ridiculous wrist band pick up system for locals, which has a least been improved) I called Eric Garcetti's office last year to complain. Apparently there was a well-attended community meeting in response to all the complaints they got.
Yet sure enough, $20 entrance fee once again. Not to mention the shear inconvenience of all the fences. I got home late Friday night to find my street completely sealed off by an 8 foot fence! Wtf?! I had to ask a passer by to help me pry back the fence so I could squeeze through.
Then Sunday night they were being extremely uptight about what is an "exit" vs. "entrance" and made me walk all over the damn place just so I could go home and go to sleep. I've been going to this thing pretty much since it started, and it NEVER had this uptight Lollapolooza vibe until a few years ago. Sad. Someone needs to hire a lawyer to investigate the legality of this whole situation...
Ask Eric Garcetti what he is going to do about Sunset Junction and where your forced donation of $20.00 is going and to what charity :
Council member Eric Garcetti can be reached at:
councilmember.garcetti@lacity.org
We elected him and he is suppose to be looking out for us!
let see...
- 8ft fences installed overnight
- not allowing the postman to deliver mail
sounds a bit more like a prison camp to me
first the lotus-free lotus fest...and now the mandatory donation sunset junction.. what is happening to this city?
what is mandatory donation anyway...
you would think in the current econmic climate, they wouldn't be charging $20 to hear some live music in the middle of the street...
at least they could offer residents in the immediate area free weekend passes.
It's funny that so many people are complaining about one of the best street festivals in California.
The Germs or Black Keys alone would coast $20 or more at a Hollywood Bowl or House Of Blues.
There was something like 20 bands, three stages, rides, food etc..; and an incredible time.
The business inside the fair do well, and everyone forgets that Sunset Junction is also a benefit, whose money goes not only to rebuilding dilapidated landmarks in the neighborhood, but provides well needed programs for kids (who also work in the fair) from all over Los Angeles.
This is also the festival's 28th year in the same location, most of the people complaining just moved into the supposed "artistic" community.
Just think how much gas and food has gone up in that time.
and for the person writing about San Francisco. The same weekend Beck, Manu Chao and other similar bands played in the Bay Area street festival and the admission cost..
$110 a day
According to Sunset Junction Neighborhood Alliance the purpose of the festival is to get the neighborhood together. A music festival that charges $20 does not accomplish this in any way. Whether its a good deal or not is not the point. The point is that Sunset Junction Neighborhood Alliance masquerades as a non-profit and then throw a huge music festival that trickles down a measley $50,000 to the community. They won't detail how the $50,000 is spent or much else about their organization because they feel entitled to posession of the street due to the years they held the free street fair. I've lived in the neighborhood 30 years so BLUEZ back off on saying the critics are newbies. Really the people who hate it most are those who were in the neighborhood when the festival was free, fun and full of neighbors. Whatever it is now, it ain't a "community" event. You also can't say the businesses made money - some do some don't - but money never used to be the point. That's all the organizers talk about now money. We in the community say open your books.