The city’s summer festival season seems to climax in late August with Sunset Junction, the sprawling street and music fair that draws thousands to Silver Lake. But next summer the throngs of tipsy hipsters and leather daddies that roam Sunset Junction might have to find another place to celebrate. Complaints have grown over the years about the increasingly high “donation” to enter the festival as well as heavy-handed tactics by organizers, the Sunset Junction Neighborhood Alliance. This year was no different, with Silver Lake business owners claiming festival organizers wanted to charge them and their employees to get beyond the festival barricades.
Relations between the festival organizers and local residents have gotten bad enough to prompt council man Eric Garcetti to wonder if the city will support the event next year if conditions don’t improve.
Ryan Carpio, Garcetti’s Silver Lake field deputy, said there has been no official response from the festival organizers. But the next step is another meeting with one of its board members — if they show up.
Photo by Carmyarmyofme via Flickr
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