Sunday Festival Highlights Grand Avenue Institutions

By Ed Fuentes
Published: Monday, September 29, 2008, at 10:07AM

Ed Fuentes [Flickr]

Waiting to enter Walk Disney Concert Hall.

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — The 5th Annual Grand Avenue Festival was held under bright skies on Sunday, and the crowds were manageable throughout the day, peaking during the lunch rush. The hit of the day were the free shows in the Walt Disney Concert Hall, which had packed lines throughout the events.

While the Grand Avenue Festival does a good job of connecting the cultural institutions on Grand, it has recently done less to feature organizations from elsewhere in Downtown. Given the multitude of established options on Grand, that may not necessary, but when press releases invite visitors to “experience the city’s booming arts scene along downtown’s cultural corridor,” one might expect to see a presence from the rest of the city.

Two years ago booths reached south on Grand and featured artists and galleries from Gallery Row and the Arts District. The result was a showcase of Downtown, and not just Bunker Hill.

Even so, there was a solid trend of visitors of attending this year’s festival via the Red, Purple and Gold Lines. Speaking to some kids visiting Downtown with their parents, that trip might just have been the highlight of the day.

Grand Ave Festival Shows off Downtown Culture
September 24, 2008

Ed Fuentes

Spring Street Smokehouse at Grand Ave Festival.

Ed Fuentes

Low impact dance lessons were held on First Street.

Ed Fuentes

The Colburn School provided much of the entertainment, like this jazz ensemble.

Comments

Spring and Main Dweller writes:

My husband and I walked up to the Festival expecting a rollicking crowd, arts and crafts vendors, musicians and other festival-type offerings, a la Sunset Junction but with a classical music sort of twist. Boy were we surprised and disappointed to see so few people, and such limited reasons for even being there! The “event” didn’t coalesce anywhere – it started kinda at the MOCA and petered out at the Opera House, had a couple of half-hearted bands, and a handful of local restaurants selling their food from tents. The biggest attention grabber was the horned owl on a perch. We tried to get a gelato, but apparently the 4 people working in the tiny tent couldn’t quite figure out how to serve the (short) line so we bailed. And it’s a shame, because it perpetuated the sense that LA has no focus, no community, no civic life.

# on Sep.29.2008 AT 12:37 PM

Fabricio writes:

Damn… I missed it. I knew it was yesterday but I could not make it. I looks a little more crowded than last year.

# on Sep.29.2008 AT 05:09 PM

Eric Richardson writes:

A press release the festival sent out today says that 25,000 people attended, though numbers for this sort of thing are always estimates. They were hoping for 30,000, but 25k would be up from past years.

# on Sep.29.2008 AT 05:15 PM

chattycathy writes:

My first time, loved it, and very youth oriented which is fine. This is a good event for parents to expose children to the arts. I loved the opera singers….amazing

# on Sep.30.2008 AT 07:31 AM