The Sunset Strip could soon get its sound back.
City Councilmembers John Heilman and Danny Hang are asking West Hollywood to explore bringing back a full-scale music festival on the Strip in 2026. Their motion directs the City Manager to start talks with experienced promoters who already know the neighborhood and its clubs. Emphasis was placed on experienced producers and promoters who know what they’re doing. Many see it as long overdue. A chance for local businesses not just to survive, but to thrive. There’s some debate about whether that boost would last beyond the festival weekend, but there’s no question about the need to support our local businesses.
The idea is to team up with the Roxy, the Whisky a Go Go, the Viper Room and other local venues. A series of smaller events would lead up to one big weekend, filling the Boulevard with the kind of energy that once made it famous. City staff will also look at using the Strip’s billboards to promote the festival and offset some of the costs.
It would be a homecoming of sorts. The original Sunset Strip Music Festival ran from 2008 to 2014. It was born out of the Sunset Strip Business Association’s push to keep live music at the heart of the Strip. In its early years, it worked. Ozzy Osbourne headlined the first major street closure in 2009. Crowds poured in. The Strip was definitely rocking and rolling again.
Over time, the lineup read like a rock hall of fame. Mötley Crüe, Slash, The Doors, Jane’s Addiction, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, Smashing Pumpkins, Public Enemy and Korn all took turns on stage. Each year the festival handed out the Elmer Valentine Award, named after the Whisky’s co-founder. Slash got it in 2010, Mötley Crüe in 2011, The Doors in 2012, Joan Jett in 2013 and Jane’s Addiction in 2014.
But the festival wasn’t always music to everyone’s ears.
By the early 2010s, the volume and the bills both got louder. Residents near Sunset complained their walls and windows shook from the bass. Sharon Segal, who lived just 62 feet from a side stage, told the Council the sound rattled her apartment for two days straight. “I’m all for music,” she said, “but there must be a better plan.” Councilmember John Duran admitted the city “fell down on the job.” Heilman said he was “horrified” at how close stages had been built to homes.
Behind the scenes, the finances were already falling apart. The Business Association lost more than $350,000 in 2013 and over $430,000 the year before. The city picked up hundreds of thousands more for public safety and logistics. Attendance slipped. Vendors went unpaid.
By 2015, it all came to a head. Nederlander Concerts, which had been hired to manage the 2014 event, sued the Business Association and the festival’s board for $619,000. The lawsuit said organizers knew they were headed for heavy losses and still pushed ahead, even borrowing $150,000 from Nederlander just days before the gates opened. Only $10,000 of that loan was ever repaid.
The suit also revealed that the festival had never turned a profit and that the 2013 event only happened because of an emergency city loan. At the time, the Association was deep in debt and owed money to nearly twenty vendors, plus $250,000 to its own president, Mikael Maglieri of the Whisky a Go Go and Rainbow Bar & Grill.
In August 2015, the City Council stepped in. It dissolved the Business Association’s control of the Sunset Strip Business Improvement District and replaced its board entirely. The Strip’s biggest party had ended not with an encore, but with lawyers and liens.
Now, more than a decade later, West Hollywood wants to try again. The city believes a festival can be both a celebration and a business boost, as long as it learns from the past. Better sound control. Smarter budgeting. Clearer accountability. And a partnership that keeps residents, promoters, and small businesses on the same page.
If all goes well, planning will begin in 2025 with a launch the following fall. It would mark a second act for the Strip’s live-music legacy and a fresh start for a street that has been quieter than it should be.
It’s WeHo’s chance to find the balance we’ve been talking about for years: protecting the peace while keeping our local economy alive and thriving. Honoring our iconic rock-and-roll roots (without shaking the walls next door) sounds like good time for all.
Life is always better when there is music.
Well according to Councilmemeber John Erickson “The Sunset Strip is dead and nothing will bring it back”. Great optimism from one of our elected leaders