My kind friend Matt took some fun pictures of Silver Lake's Annual Sunset Junction Street Fair on Saturday. Link to his entire Flickr pool here.




Like always the Junction fell on the hottest day of the year. We sweated out the heat and stayed for lots of bands, fair food and the eclectic round-up of local artisans, shops, sponsors, and people-watching. A highlight of the day was happy hour hosted by Malo. Their patio was an oasis of kind bartenders and top shelf margaritas for $5. Thank you to Steffie at Yelp.com LA for pointing the way and providing drink coupons. The prize wheel over at Amoeba Records' tent was an inventive way to raise money for Hurricane Katrina victims and any spot with shade was a god-send. Just a buck donation and you could walk away with little prize packs courtesy of LA Weekly or just get a taste of what a Price Is Right contestant feels like.






The main stage as expected packed the biggest crowd, especially for Autolux and Blonde Redhead. And like every year technical snafus stalled set times. Sea Wolf took it in stride and was able to get to his new hit -"You're A Wolf" which got everyone and their parasols jumping after slower Bright Eyes sounding tunes.

The community vibe was strongest Saturday night at the smaller Sanborn stage where Morris Day & The Time delighted a diverse crowd. Shirtless gay men and police officers swaying in time to "The Bird" was the picture of harmony. Young and old shared stories with the clueless but impressed on-lookers which mainly started with "You know, the villian from Purple Rain" or "You know, the band from Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back". I included came naively for the spectacle and stayed for the soul.

A couple new restaurants opened their doors just in time for the crowded weekend. Flore is a happy addition to the strip offering vegan cuisine. They make a tasty lemonade and offer many natural elixirs. Even though they served a limited menu I'm sure they'll have the Jicama taco roll-up creations I tried on a daily basis. Full of hummus and deligthfully seasoned the faux tacos are a welcome alternative to the dried out tempeh your veggie friends probably try to stuff down your throat.

Sunset Junction has another coffee house now too. Intelligentsia Coffee threw quite the opening bash on Friday night, thanks to jugs of sweet wine from the Silver Lake Wine gang. It sure got the Street Fair weekend off to a bang as many hipster hangovers continued to be nursed well into Sunday. Intelligentsia makes good use of the space next to the Silver Lake Conservatory of Music that has been boarded up for as long as I can remember. It's a yuppie's wet dream for sure to be able to sample gourmet coffee of varying quality grades and then pay up to $120/pound for the finest blend (plus it was plugged on Daily Candy.) Too upscale for the 'hood? Time will tell. But a decent cup of coffee is never unwelcome especially when they offer so many Direct Trade and shade grown varieties.

Dogs barking and happily exhausted by the end of the night I still am glad to live in a neighborhood that hosts one of the funnest events of the summer. Yes, I yearn for the days when it was a truly donation based event. The $15 entry fee this year (aka MANDATORY DONATION wtf?) kept the locals out for at least one of the days. Many complained about the defeat of the Street Fair's original intent to be a community building event. A message to the Sunset Junction Neighborhood Alliance: Please pass on to your organizer that if you truly want to continue promoting a neighborhood event you must treat the people in the neighborhood nicely. They're the people that you meet each day. As big as the Junction is it sends everyone living off of Sunset away for the weekend when they should be mingling with Latinos and Leather Daddies in the spirit the event intended 27 years ago. A lowered donation for residents is mandatory. Or give up your non-profit front all together and come out to LA as the concert promoter you want to be. Or make it a charity event worth the cost of admission. Or introduce a weekend pass deal. Or better publicize the free wristbands offered at Tsunami Coffeehouse for the residents living right on Sunset Blvd. Or let everyone in half price during the early part of the day and make the Eastside invaders who come to see the headlining acts pay the full cover price. This is what we call compromising, which after all the Silver Lake Improvement Association's petitioning this year the Junction still did not know the meaning of the word.

Like so many popular summer events around LA, the Junction has outgrown her britches. The new location layout where the majority of vendors sat on Santa Monica Blvd. was disorientating at first but on the bright side allowed breathing room further East on Sunset for the daily traffic. The local shop owners along Sunset were cut out of the action but provided dinner & drink specials, sales, Air-Conditioning, and after parties. Bingo the wiener dog at cute store Pull My Daisy was especially friendly when I saw him early in the day. The gang at Thinkspace Gallery not only hosted live painters and a flashy gold tee-pee but a couple doors down sold homemade cupcakes with a smile. Overall everyone was cashing in and acting neighborly, just as they have in past years. In the words of much more cliched man "They may take our mandatory donations but they will never take our freedom."

Labels: events, local, reviews