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Johnathan Rice plays at the 2008 Sunset Junction Street Festival (see more photos here) | Photo by Koga/LAist
An e-mail sent out from an online ticketing vendor today advertised this year's Sunset Junction, but city officials say no street closure and event permits have been granted to the festival. TicketWeb lists admission for the popular and longstanding event at $15 each day for August 22nd and 23rd confusing attendees who thought the festival was gone or should be free of charge.
At this point, there is no guarantee the festival will make a return. Last week, City Council President Eric Garcetti arranged for the festival organizers to meet with local business owners and neighborhood groups to discuss the problems that came out of last year, such as local employees being forced to pay festival admission to get to work and not allowing postal workers to deliver the mail.
"The idea would be that the organizers would listen to these concerns and would come back with a proposal before moving forward," said Garcetti Spokesperson Julie Wong. That proposal, which has not been received yet, would determine if the event gets a permit or not.
Garcetti's office is seeking a consensus among the community to ensure the event remains a positive experience for everyone. If that goal cannot be reached, the festival's future, now in its 29th year, is cloudy.
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You know, I was going through the ProQuest LA Times archives today doing on research on something else, and happened to stumble upon a bunch of articles about Sunset Junction over the years.
What I hadn't realized is that this Michael guy actually has been in charge from the beginning. It's just strange because every year they would interview him and he'd say that the goal was to get the gay community and Latinos together, etc. and that it was going smoothly and it was a success. The line-up would usually consist of local bands and a motown/soul throw-back or two, because I guess he's really into the Supremes, but never anyone really big.
Then one year in the mid-90's (I think) he mentioned that a nice and unexpected side-effect of the festival was that it acutally ended up generating a lot of revenue from the vendors and donations, which he was then able to put back into local mural-painting, triangle park, after school sports, etc. I can find this article if anyone's interested.
Anyway, what I want to know is how he got from THAT statement and the general philosphy above to the mini-Cochella that the fest has become, and the arguement that he MUST charge a $15 cover. It seems like at some point he started to put the horse before the cart, if I may borrow an expression from Gone With the Wind.
Someone really needs to get to the bottom of this, and ask him what the hell is going on.
Hello Hindinwood,
Please contact me about the ProQuest LA Times article. My name is Jack and my email is jam87f@gmail.com.
Appreciatively,
Jack
^^^Oh my! Make that "the cart before the horse"...
I searched for Michael McKinley and Sunset Junction and found:
http://www.theeastsiderla.com/2009/03/sunset-junction-street-fair-faces.html
http://laist.com/2008/10/15/support_waning_for_next_years_sunse.php
I think anyone who buys a ticket to this event is a fool.
Sunset Junction should be free. Businesses and the community needs to stop this blatant yearly money-making scheme and return it to its original roots. Free to the public, full access to all businesses. Last years "no man's land" was ridiculous and disgraceful.
If it can't be free, then the city should not approve permits to shut down Sunset Blvd. Businesses and the community, and most importantly the taxpayers, should not be inconvenienced because a demagogue wants to make money again.
It should be free , and the mailman and employees should be able to get to work.
i don't understand how a *community festival* sells tickets on ticketweb?!?!?! we live on lucile, just south of sunset and have been attending the junction for years (when it was donation only)...then, we were happy to donate to our "community." heck, i met my spouse at sunset junction...
but now, having been denied literally crossing sunset to get to my local liquor store to buy some milk for our coffee, it's clear it's a down-right sellout. now we try to go away the weekend of the junction. it's become a monster. unless it's free, i hope that garcetti denies the permits.
20 years ago that whole section where broken windows and no nice places to eat. The Sunset Junction made that area, and if you met your wife there it was because of the street fair because before the fair that place was a ghost town. You should thank the fair for giving you a home with a nice equity in it. Sunset Junction got it's name from the fair. LOL all the locals don't understand that very important fact. YEAH FACT!
This article brings up some important points, however, I don't find it unusual for any event to not receive a permit until much closer to the actual dates, sometimes just weeks (or even days) before.
Nice. You should write this article.
Shut 'em down if they can't do it for free. They're city streets, they're already paid for.
Shut 'em down if they can't do it for free. They're city streets, they're already paid for.
Wow this guy writes a great fantasy piece. If he would have just called the SJ office and asked a couple of simple questions this would not be such a one sided stories like most of the smear articles out there are. If you would pull up records on permits you will see that SJSF always gets their permits in AUG. so there is nothing unusual about this year. The mailman comment is hilarious and what's funnier is that people believe this. Go the Sunset and ask the mailman what happened last year. Wow this is sloppy press, and investigation but this does just fine for the author to get a rise out of people. What happened to facts? Please people reply if you want the real answer not this B.S. he is trying to call facts. Come to a meeting on Thurs the 20th at Micheltorina elementary peeps for a dose of reality. LOL this should be in the Funny Section.
2007 Sunset Junction Street Fair Tax Returns (public record)
Revenue: $796,738
Cost: $450,375 (rentals, est city fees of $200,000, salaries, etc)
Profit: $346,363
$20 admission
$500 booth price (guess)
$500 (?Booth price?) x 200 Booths (advertised # of booths) = $100,000 thats $696,738 for admissions @$20/each which would be 34,836 people (year 2000 police estimates were 100,000 for the 2 days, is 34,000a real number???).
What if:
$5.00 admission would be:
$5 x 34836 people = $174,180 plus booths $100,000 Total $274,180
Better promotion for local business to buy booths and LOCAL bands that would play for free could easily take this Fest back to the people.
Can people be honest for once. Don't read b.s. that is out there, look up the facts and judge for yourselves. This writer of this article did not do homework by talking about the permits. Do your homework people like Markland said permits are not issued till closer to the actual date of the event. Mrbill's post is full of holes, and it makes me wonder his true Identity. What do these people really want. I am guessing power. If there would have never been a Sunset Junction there would have never been a Sunset Junction community. INGRATES COACHELLA IS KEEPING A CITY ALIVE AND THE CITY APPRECIATES IT. SILVER LAKE SHOULD DO THE SAME.
Can people be honest for once. Don't read b.s. that is out there, look up the facts and judge for yourselves. This writer of this article did not do homework by talking about the permits. Do your homework people like Markland said permits are not issued till closer to the actual date of the event. Mrbill's post is full of holes, and it makes me wonder his true Identity. What do these people really want. I am guessing power. If there would have never been a Sunset Junction there would have never been a Sunset Junction community. INGRATES COACHELLA IS KEEPING A CITY ALIVE AND THE CITY APPRECIATES IT. SILVER LAKE SHOULD DO THE SAME.
Can people be honest for once. Don't read b.s. that is out there, look up the facts and judge for yourselves. This writer of this article did not do homework by talking about the permits. Do your homework people like Markland said permits are not issued till closer to the actual date of the event. Mrbill's post is full of holes, and it makes me wonder his true Identity. What do these people really want. I am guessing power. If there would have never been a Sunset Junction there would have never been a Sunset Junction community. INGRATES COACHELLA IS KEEPING A CITY ALIVE AND THE CITY APPRECIATES IT. SILVER LAKE SHOULD DO THE SAME.
Can people be honest for once. Don't read b.s. that is out there, look up the facts and judge for yourselves. This writer of this article did not do homework by talking about the permits. Do your homework people like Markland said permits are not issued till closer to the actual date of the event. Mrbill's post is full of holes, and it makes me wonder his true Identity. What do these people really want. I am guessing power. If there would have never been a Sunset Junction there would have never been a Sunset Junction community. INGRATES COACHELLA IS KEEPING A CITY ALIVE AND THE CITY APPRECIATES IT. SILVER LAKE SHOULD DO THE SAME.
if you want to read a balanced article read this one.
http://blogs.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/festivals/sunset-junction-in-2009-silver/
and this one came out the day after the meeting. Sadly with Newspapers going under people go to blogs to get their news and unlike the professional newspaper their is no research being done to give you a balance piece. Instead you just get a "PIECE".. LOL I have to let it be known where to get the real news and facts, and what to avoid.