Sunset Junction is Probably Back on The Map For The Weekend, Organizers Say
Despite our scoop (at the bottom) that Sunset Junction organizers came up with the cash they needed (via a corporate source) to move on, the city today said no again. More at the bottom. First posted at 4:10 p.m. Tuesday.
Colin Young-Wolff No clowning: It's on. Maybe.
So is it on, or off? Watching the trials and tribulations of the annual Sunset Junction festival is like watching championship ping-pong.
A day after the city pulled the plug on this weekend's street fair-cum-concert, organizers say they're close to pulling out a last-minute save via cash raised online. You see, the promoter owes you, the taxpayer, $256,000 for last year's event, including police, fire and street services. But they still need your help.
Echoing the report on our sister blog West Coast Sound, Phillip Tate, lawyer for the fest, indicated to the Weekly today that they're close to coming up with enough money to get a green light at tomorrow's Board of Public Works meeting:
We're optimistic. It looks pretty good at this point. Assuming everything pans out that's the plan [to go board tomorrow with cash in-hand].
That's an amazing turn of events for a nonprofit that didn't have enough dough to pay for city services (but somehow could come up with money for a sharp lawyer, a top-dollar publicist, and several rock-act and DJ deposits).
It's a miracle!
The Satellite Club, which hosts a stage at the Junction, says on its Facebook page that organizers do have the cash today, according to West Coast Sound.
So those $1 and $5 donations since yesterday add up to six figures? Or maybe a pile of cash was hiding somewhere?
In any case, it's been fun watching. Don't cancel your weekend plans on Sunset Boulevard just yet.
Update: Our sister blog West Coast Sound reports that organizers say it's definitely happening -- that they got the cash from ... (gasp) ... concert promotion behemoth Live Nation. (How nonprofit is that?). But ... the city can still say no today. We'll be watching.
Update No. 2: The city Board of Public Works on Wednesday morning said no anyway at a meeting today to decide if Sunset Junction would get its permit to go on, according to out sister blog West Coast Sound, which was at the meeting. So that's that, unless, we guess, the full City Council intervenes. Kind of last-minute, innit?
Added: Organizers issued a statement. That and all your updates here.
[@dennisjromero/djromero@laweekly.com]
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