Downtown Blogger Eric posts about the overcrowding of the Grand Performances downtown at California Plaza.
After offering a few suggestions for improvement, he says:
It's not ok to say that people need to get there earlier if they want to see the show. Downtown's population is growing, and people from elsewhere are continuing to recognize Downtown as a cultural destination. More people will come to these events and there needs to be a plan to accommodate them.What's interesting to note here is 1) these cultural events are funded through the City's required Arts Development Fees for non-residential construction projects valued at over $500K (these are also the funds used to build MOCA), and 2) the non-profit organization that is Grand Performances has no control over the space - what really could be done? The answer would be simple: move the performances to another venue. That would be contradictory to why these events exist here to begin with.
I like the crowds; it shows success of the arts and places them in demand.
Go see one of the free events - it's worth it!
(It's also number 36 on the list of 225 ways to celebrate Los Angeles' 225th birthday!)
Image from Grand Performances.
2 comments:
Grand Performances has plenty of venue control. Heck, for this particular night they had seating built out into the water area for the film festival's important people. There's nothing keeping them from addressing capacity through exactly the suggestions I gave. That would double or triple capacity for a film night without doing any physical venue alteration.
I agree that the Plaza is a bit small for acts like Al Gore and Ozomatli, but it does help to get people interacting (and hopefully interested!) in downtown L.A.
And as the success of programs like Grand Performances has spread to the ears of other city officials, many cities have designed their own summer performance program, which hopefully lessens the occupancy strain on C.P.
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