Jamaican Salsero in L.A.

The city of Santa Monica held an all night art event entitled, “Glow”. It was held at the Santa Monica pier and the surrounding waterfront. It was scheduled to go from 7 pm to 7 am. It featured, art installations, performers, musicians and DJs from KCRW. I didn’t get to the event until after 10 pm. I saw the installations on the walkway along Ocean Boulevard leading up to the pier. There were a few on the North side of the pier including Peter Tolkin Projects’ “Dunnage Ball” and an amazing light show entitled “Primal Source” by Usman Haque. On the pier itself, we found ourselves next to the KCRW DJ booth where Raul Campos from KCRW was in the middle of his set. Unfortunately, the Santa Monica police department closed down the KCRW booth after 1 am citing public safety concerns. The pier was overcrowded (Raul announced there were over 45,000 people there). They hoped that by stopping the music, the crowd would dissipate and then they would start up again. We waited for over an hour then decided to call it a night since the music hadn’t started back up at this point. It was a great even and I hope it becomes an annual event. Given this trial run I am sure they will plan for the huge crowd next time (maybe move the music unto the sand and off the pier).

Click the pic above the post for my photos.
The LA Times has some nice pics here.