It’s really sad news, I am looking forward to it each summer as I have been attending it for a few years now, but The Sunset Junction Fair may be in jeopardy this year! I think I had heard this same story before, but every year, the organizers managed to go through the trouble and bring the two-day music festival to my neighborhood once again; but this year, it is serious!
According to the LA Times, ‘officials say organizers owe Los Angeles more than $267,000 in event fees from last year's fair, and are threatening to withhold the required permits until the festival pays up’!
And
‘If no resolution is reached at a meeting Wednesday between officials and organizers, Silver Lake may be without its signature festival for the first time in 31 years.’
You have to add to this, some complaints from neighbors (I’m not one of them), who think the fair bring 'too many people', is 'too expensive and commercial', and has a 'confused identity', being half music festival, half street fair with carnival rides.
I disagree of course, this is what makes its charm, and there are always booths at music festival anyway.
Sure the city’s costs for police and road closures may have been on the up side since the first years of the fair, but everything changed last year when officials approved a plan to require festivals and street events to share the city’s costs, so the $267,000!!
At the time I was writing this, the decision was still in suspense, let’s hope they can find a compromise, as the date of the fair is so close!
PS: a tweet from the Sunset Junction Fair on Wednesday night, was saying:
‘Please do not panic, we are on it to resolved this $$ issue. stay up for updates Thanks for your concerns #sunsetjunction