Los Angeles has always had a steady stream of music street festivals year round. Some have lasted years, some happen just once and others implode before peaking (ahem, FYF). Echo Park Rising is one such festival that has forged on through thick and thin. There was a call out for bands to apply for the fest months ago and our band applied only to hear nothing, which wasn’t a complete surprise to me. We have played it in the past and with events like this, signing up is just something you do as you cross your fingers and hope for the best. As has been the case in the past, local bars and spaces got proactive and booked off site shows in the neighborhood and we were lucky enough to be asked to play one of these off-shoots this year instead. What was strange to me was that as of mid last week, the festival itself had not announced a line up or venue. In my head, I assumed the whole thing was a bust and wasn't happening. My cynical brain was activated and I assumed shenanigans. What it also did was dredge up my memory of the time I was supposed to play Sunset Junction in 2011.
These aforementioned Los Angeles street festivals were major outlets not just for bands, but for the community. Sunset Junction, according to the Los Angeles Times was “…a two-day grassroots event created three decades ago to soothe tensions between Silver Lake’s Latino and gay residents.” It was a free festival, open to all people until it wasn’t. It grew and grew. The $25 entrance fee and fencing off of streets that inevitably happened angered locals who couldn’t afford the ticket price. What’s worse, it was uncovered that the promoters were not paying the permit fees to the city nor the vendors and even, as I was told, the bands. By 2011 Sunset Junction had bitten more than it could chew…
My primary band at the time, The Damselles & The TC4, were steadily getting out there, as it were. Our sound was emulating the 60’s girl group soul and R&B sound that was at the time becoming hip again. We were opening for bands like Fitz & The Tantrums and our mix of originals and covers gave us a leg up in the street festival scene, including playing Lobster Fest in San Pedro (sponsored by KROQ) among others. We got offered Sunset Junction 2011 and we were beyond stoked. We knew this was the one to do as it generally was: a) well attended and b) a perfect mix of old and new artists. Once the line up was announced, our minds were blown. We were to share the same stage as Bobby Womack, A Ladies Of Motown review, Charles Bradley and… Hanson? Either way, quite a line up to be a part of.
(If you squint and cross your eyes at once, you’ll be able to see our name…)
We rode the promo wave leading up to the festival. There were press junkets, pre fest parties and we even shot a commercial that also featured Bobby Womack.
(In this video I spout off names of bands I wanted to see while wearing shades indoors…Cool…)
A mere three days before the event was to kick off, the city decided that the $260,000 owed to them from the promoter from previous years was enough to pull the plug. It was a fair move. As the following days passed, information had come out that the promoter was doing dirty most of the artists and vendors and the new door admission price was not being divided fairly, to say the least. After Live Nation gave the city about $140,000 to help pay off that years debt, it still wasn’t enough and just like that, the festival was canceled.
The following day I was pre interviewed for a piece on KCRW’s “Greater L.A.” to discuss my thoughts on the cancelation on air, but my interview fell through as the producer went with the singer for a more well knows group at the time, Vanaprasta, as the local talking head musician. Probably for the better because at the time, all I really wanted was to be on a bigger stage than the normal tiny bar, tiny club I was used to. To share the stage with those bands that day would have been great not just for me but for the bands moral, which at the time from my memory wasn’t the most loving. I think playing it could have put us in a better head space. If I had been interviewed on air, it would have come across as selfish likely because I didn’t have a good enough defense as to why it was a GOOD idea to cancel, which of course, it was. The promoter was greedy and ripped off a lot of people and made something that was well intentioned and good for the community into a cash grab. A tale as old as time and one that hasn’t stopped being told. However, with all that greed and bad behavior in the air, something kind of cool happened.
The day the fest was canceled, local promoters, venues and scene types took the initiative and knew that 60 orphaned bands and artists needed a home for the weekend, so they booked a handful of events spread out through the city. We were lucky enough to hop on to a couple of them and had a great time. It wasn’t the big stage event we anticipated and I only can speak for myself, but I thought this making lemonade out of a pile of dookie was more satisfying than playing the real fest and inadvertently aiding a con.
It was a full circle moment. The community banded together, which in the 1980’s was the impetus for starting Sunset Junction, but with that original intention far behind, it was time to hang it up and start anew. This is probably why these festivals cease to exist. The promoters getting into some sort of trouble is the main cause, but when it becomes mainly about money and excessive growth, the whole ideal is lost. If these are to be local events, as advertised, make them so. Otherwise, change your mission statement and make it be a for profit event. Don’t try to hoodwink your audience. They know better.
With all that being said, I don’t think Echo Park Rising is shady. It is, as of Friday, happening, line up and all. I dont see it falling away like Sunset Junction did. I don’t know the politics or the people, but what I do know is that regardless of the official event itself, the community in Echo Park continues to band together to create a day that allows for local businesses to thrive through music. This Saturday, you can walk up and down Sunset Blvd and find an event every 100 feet. The event may not be as large or as exciting as it maybe was before COVID, but it is still on and I am happy to continue to be a part of it, at least until the next new festival pops up.
The Pretty Flowers are playing Bar Henry in Echo Park on Saturday, Sept 9 around 6pm with a handful of other great bands. If thats not your thing, Short Stop, Sick City Records, Sticky Rice and more places are hosting non festival events that day. Support local business and local music. Lord knows we all need it.
Thanks for reading.