An Arts Festival for West Hollywood? The City Wants Your Vote

ADVERTISEMENT
One city one pride
Past One City One Pride posters by, left to right, John Johnston (2018, 2017); Ricky Serrano (2016); Chris Begay (2015); Stefana Lapadat (2014); and Elissa Baldissera (2013).

We’ve got Halloween Carnaval (coming soon). How about an arts festival?

The City of West Hollywood has launched a survey to get the opinion of residents as to whether and when and where to stage such an annual event. The survey can be accessed by clicking here.

It asks residents a variety of questions, including what month the survey should take place, what its focus should be, and whether admission should be free or paid.

An announcement of the festival notes that the city already has several: the Halloween Carnaval, the LA Pride Parade and Festival, One City One Pride, the city’s LGBTQ arts and culture festival, and the Russian Cultural Festival. Previous festivals sponsored by the city have failed, with the most prominent examples being the West Hollywood Book Fair, which the city ended in 2014 as attendance fell by two-thirds, and the Sunset Strip Music Festival, which ended in 2015 when losses tripled to more than $1 million.

The survey follows up on a recommendation made as the city’s Economic Development Department/Arts Division elicited community feedback on the future of the arts in West Hollywood in the development of WeHo Arts: The Plan, which the City Council approved in 2017.

In 2017, City Council approved WeHo Arts: The Plan, the City’s cultural planning document following a nearly two-year process to elicit community feedback on the future of the arts in West Hollywood.  From that emerged five principles and 20 recommendations to explore in the next few years.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Is there also a place for a festival specifically focused on the arts that would be different from these other festivals and add something special to the overall festival calendar in the greater Los Angeles area?” asks the announcement of the survey.  “This is what the feasibility study is exploring along with the issues of capacity, costs, timing, and other impacts to the city.  We hope to have a report to present to Council in the first quarter of 2020.”

Results from the survey will be aggregated for a presentation and no individual responses will be disclosed.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
ADVERTISEMENT

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

5 Comments
Newest
Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Joshua88
Joshua88
5 years ago

Thank you for letting us know.

learntobeajournalist
learntobeajournalist
5 years ago

Good idea. But then the socialists scream that we have to support every person who wanders into West Hollywood. Look how that’s turned out in CA with 50 percent of all the nation’s homeless in this state. I can’t afford my bills, where is my handout? Unbelievable some of the comments.

Steve Martin
Steve Martin
5 years ago

I guess we have run out of people in need.

Ham
Ham
5 years ago

stop wasting $$. provide basic services first.

jjabely
jjabely
5 years ago
Reply to  Ham

Art is a basic service, or it should be, for cities and schools.