Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing series that tracks the city’s expenditures appearing on upcoming Santa Monica City Council consent agendas. Consent agenda items are routinely passed by the City Council with little or no discussion from elected officials or the public. However, many of the items have been part of public discussion in the past.
CITY HALL — The production company behind the Getty Museum Family Festival and Chinatown Summer Nights is in line to receive $100,000 from City Hall to produce the 20th annual Santa Monica Festival, a celebration of the city by the sea’s diversity and commitment to the arts, culture and the environment.
Los Angeles-based Community Arts Resources, which has produced the festival before, is city staff’s top choice. The City Council is expected to award the contract during tonight’s meeting. The contract includes options for 2012 and 2013. The $100,000 covers the entire production costs, city staff said.
This year will mark the festival’s 20th anniversary, which started in 1991 on the Santa Monica Pier. It moved to its current location in Clover Park in 1994, according to a city staff report. The festival features food, arts and crafts, music and gives residents an opportunity to interact with city departments and various nonprofits.
If hired, Community Arts Resources, which was one of three companies to be interviewed by staff from Community and Cultural Services, Housing and Economic Development and the Office of Sustainability and the Environment, would be responsible for hiring musical acts and attracting artists and vendors, and setting up stages and other infrastructure.
Money for the contract comes from the Cultural Affairs Division ($65,000) and the Office of Sustainability and the Environment ($35,000).
The festival will be held Saturday, May 7, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.