Going for Another Grand Slam

Annual Street Festival Features Food, Performances and Free Tours

by Anna Scott

Be warned: This Sunday, you might see Martians on Grand Avenue.

That’s not a reason to run for the hills. The Martians, along with singers, dancers, food purveyors and more, are part of the fourth annual Grand Avenue Festival.

From 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Sept. 30, Grand Avenue between Temple and Fifth streets will offer performances, workshops, tours, art, food and the Martians, or, rather, a display about the surface of Mars, which will be inside the Natural History Museum’s simulated research lab. The festival is expected to draw at least 25,000 people.

“If it’s a good day,” said Leticia Rhi Buckley, director of marketing and communications for the Los Angeles Music Center, one of the festival’s main sponsors, “it may even be more.”

Launched in 2004, the Grand Avenue Festival grew out of the Creation Festival, a smaller event held the year before to celebrate the opening of Walt Disney Concert Hall.

“We said, ‘Why don’t we invite everybody?’” recalled Josephine Ramirez, vice president of programming and planning for the Music Center and the festival co-chair. “Why don’t we make it a Downtown thing?”

Thus the Creation Festival was combined with the Taste of Downtown food fair and the rest, as they say, is history. Over the past few years, the Grand Avenue Festival has more than doubled in size, adding new participants and drawing attendees from all over the city.

“It’s a real motley crew,” Ramirez said jokingly of the festival-goers, who this year can expect to find more to enjoy than ever before.

New additions to the festival include discount tickets to 1 and 6:30 p.m. performances of the musical Avenue Q, available at the Ahmanson Theatre box office; a giant sidewalk mural between First and Third streets, which everyone is invited to work on, depicting the L.A. River; a drum procession by the CalArts African Music and Dance Ensemble followed by a noon performance at the REDCAT theater; and a performance on the Grand Avenue outdoor stage by the Oaxacan youth brass band Banda Solaga.

The festival also offers a unique opportunity to indulge your inner urban planning geek, as the city Planning Department is preparing an educational exhibit on a set of proposed, pedestrian-friendly new street standards for Downtown Los Angeles.

“It’s kind of whimsical,” said Ramirez of the exhibit, expected to include an installation demonstrating some suggestions for sprucing up Downtown’s sidewalks. “I wouldn’t expect it to look like Main Street at Disneyland, but the street will be painted.”

Other festivities will include free performances by a children’s choir and various Mariachi bands, along with a cookie decorating booth and an art exhibition throughout the day at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels; a free L.A. Philharmonic performance at Disney Hall; dance performances throughout the afternoon at the Colburn School; free guided tours at MOCA; and family-friendly concerts at the Los Angeles Public Library. (A full schedule is on p. 15.)

New participants this year in A Taste of Downtown, offering local food samples for $6 or less, include HeartsChallenger ice cream, Tiara Café, Warung Café and gourmet hot dogs from Weeneez. Restaurants returning from last year include California Pizza Kitchen, Ciudad, Kendall’s Brasserie, Noé at the Omni Los Angeles, Pete’s Café, Pinot Grill and Spring Street Smokehouse.

For first-timers hoping to take it all in, Ramirez has a few words of advice: “Go to the information booths. Chart your course and then pace yourself.” And, perhaps most importantly, “Make sure you understand that Avenue Q is not a kids’ show.”

The Grand Avenue Festival is Sunday, Sept. 30, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. on Grand Avenue between Temple and Fifth streets, (213) 972-7611 or grandavenuefestival.org.

Grand Avenue Festival, Schedule of Events

Sunday, Sept. 30, Grand Avenue Between Temple and Fifth Streets

• 11 a.m.
  Sister Cities International Student Welcome Event
  Music Center Plaza
  Chamber music with members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic
  Walt Disney Concert Hall auditorium (11:15 a.m.)
  A program of works by composers when they were young.
  Tickets required; details under Special Tickets. 
• 11:30 a.m.,br> Korean Classical Music and Dance Ensemble<
  Music Center Plaza
  Drum Downtown
  Grand Avenue at First Street (also at 2 and 4 p.m.) 
• 12 p.m.
  Moscow Nights
  Music Center Plaza
  Brasil Brazil
  Grand Avenue Street Stage (also at 12:45, 1:30 p.m.)
  CalArts African Music and Dance Ensemble
  Grand Avenue at Second Street12:30 p.m.
  L.A. Philharmonic Family Concert
  Walt Disney Concert Hall auditorium Northern Lights: Music of Sibelius
  Tickets required; details under Special Tickets.
  Sunday Mass
  Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
  Futa Toro West African Dance Ensemble
  Music Center Plaza

   

• 1 p.m.
  Colburn Ballet
  Colburn School (also at 3 p.m.)
  Avenue Q
  Ahmanson Theatre (also at 6:30 p.m.)
  $20 Hot Tix Tickets required; details under Special Tickets.
  Sakai Flamenco
  Music Center Plaza
  Get Your Chops Back – Summer Strum
  Grand Avenue at First Street 
• 1:30 p.m.
  Jackie Ibarra with the Cathedral Choir, Sal Soria and Mario Alberto
  Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
  Colburn Jazz, Mime and Dance
  Colburn School
  The Tinkers
  Music Center Plaza 
• 2 p.m.Upground
  Walt Disney Concert Hall auditorium Band performs a blend of ska, jazz, reggae and cumbia.
  Tickets required; details under Special Tickets.
  Performing Books – Westward Ho, Carlotta!
  Central Library (ages 4-10, also at 3 p.m.)
  Colburn Conservatory of Music performance

  Colburn School (also at 3:30 p.m.)
  Jackie Ibarra with various Mariachi groups
  Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels plaza (2:15 p.m.)
  Jenufa
  Los Angeles Opera Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
  Tickets from $20.

   

• 3 p.m.
  Children’s Choir
  Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels plaza
  Sal Soria, organ demonstration
  Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels cathedral church
  Bitter: Sweet
  Walt Disney Concert Hall auditorium (3:15 p.m.)
  Shana Halligan and Kiran Shahani present trip hop.
  Tickets required; details under Special Tickets.
  Banda Solaga
  Grand Avenue Street Stage
  Mario Alberto, Jackie Ibarra and Mariachi
  Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels plaza (3:15 p.m.)
  Get Your Chops Back – Flute Choir
  Grand Avenue at First Street (3:15 p.m.)

   

• Ongoing Programs
  A Taste of Downtown L.A. (11 a.m.-5 p.m.)
  Grand Avenue between First and Second streetsChildren’s Workshops (11 a.m.-2 p.m.)
  Artmaking including celebration hats, fantasy foam creatures and animal medallions (ages 5+).
  Music Center Plaza

  Children’s workshops with Rosanne Kleineman (11 a.m.-4 p.m.)
  Decorate beads made from turned wood and string them to create your own colorful necklace.
  Walt Disney Concert Hall Garden

  Hit + Run Customized T-Shirts and Dublab DJs (11 a.m.-4 p.m.)
  Walt Disney Concert Hall, Keck Amphitheatre and Gardens

  Free live T-shirt screen printing with designs while Dublab Soundsystem spins.

  Urban Design Studio
  Re-imagine Downtown, envisioned by the city of L.A.’s Urban Design Studio.
  Second Street at Grand Avenue

  Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels (1:30-5 p.m.)
  Sacred art exhibition, conference center; puppet show, children’s garden; mural of expression; children’s cookie decorating booth; Raul Rodriguez display; and Guadalupe Radio live broadcast, on the plaza.

  Colburn School
  Tours of new campus (12-4:30 p.m.)

  Discover Colburn art workshops (1-4 p.m.)
  Museum of Contemporary Art
  Free admission and hourly exhibition highlight tours (11 a.m.-5 p.m.)
  Singing Dogs and Sliced Buildings Family Tours and Artmaking Workshop (12-4 p.m.).

  Urban Garden Tour
  Walt Disney Concert Hall Gardens (11 a.m.-4 p.m.)
  Space is limited; tours run every 30 minutes.

  Plant Doctor Is In
  Walt Disney Concert Hall Gardens (adults, 12-4 p.m.)
  Free gardening event providing advice from the team that maintains the Walt Disney Concert Hall garden.

  Los Angeles Public Library (1-5 p.m.)
  Central Library
  Gallery spaces and library services

  REDCAT
  Caricature artists in the lobby and street painting
  Second Street (11 a.m.-5 p.m.)
  Viewing of Barry McGee: Advanced Mature Work in the gallery (12-6 p.m.)

  Wells Fargo Museum
  Wells Fargo Center (11 a.m.-5 p.m.)
  Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (11 a.m.-5 p.m.)
  The museum’s Skymobile shows how rocks and minerals can unlock a planet’s past. Also fossils from the museum’s collections and dinosaur crafts.
  Grand Avenue at Second Street

  L.A. River Mural making (11 a.m.-5 p.m.)
  Grand Avenue between First and Third streets
  Group painting of a huge street mural.

   

• Special TicketsFree tickets at Walt Disney Concert Hall
  Tickets are free but limited and distributed on a first-come, first-served basis approximately one hour before each performance. Go to the L.A. Phil ticket booth on Grand Avenue and First Street. Limit four per person.

  $20 HOT TIX at Center Theatre Group
  For performances of Avenue Q at 1 and 6:30 p.m. (Ages 16+). Limit two tickets per person at the time of sale.