Here is the semi-final word on the Summer Music Festival, a Thursday night staple in the Courtyard of City Hall for nearly two decades.
For the first time since the recession began, the concert schedule that once ran nine weeks and extended until Labor Day, is being expanded.
Shrunk to four weeks for the last two years because of budget constraints, it will grow to six Thursday nights, beginning on July 11, concluding on Aug. 15.
Extra funding was available this year when monies from the construction-cancelled Fourth of July fireworks show was shifted to the concert account.
For a drastic change from the norm, the pre-concert agreement chatter – Who should be in charge? Who will pay the bills? Are Thursdays the right day? How many shows? What kind of music? – was gentle rather than contentious.
Impresario Gary Mandell, presently in the final stages of booking, said he could not identify the acts until next week, just the genres:
An a capella group, acoustic blues, bluegrass and country, blues and jazz, country rock, Afro Cuban, and classic rock, done acoustic, says Mr. Mandell, with strings.
The owner of Boulevard Music admitted to one worry every spring when he begins to book performers:
“I always wonder if I can come up with a good series that I am happy with. Then things just seem to fall into place, not that I am the Ed Sullivan of Culver City. Together, we seem to luck out and get a good group of performers for an astonishingly good deal.”
There is one other note of significance before the acts are introduced.
While the Pier crowds for Thursday night summer concerts in Santa Monica have been declining the last two years, Mr. Mandell said, “I am proud that we have been able to maintain a steady flow of crowds every week.”
