BROKE LA partners with Spaceland, schedules two-day festival at the Regent

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The entrance to BROKE LA 2017 (Photo by Bronson)
The entrance to BROKE LA 2017 (Photo by Bronson)

For seven years, BROKE LA was the little festival that could.

Hatched under the name Brokechella as a low-low-budget alternative to the April festival in Indio, the wildly diverse BROKE LA was as DIY as DIY gets, right down trappings like a bounce house, a soap bubble artist and a puppy-petting area. “The music fest for the rest of us,” it advertised, assuming the rest don’t have trust funds and love dogs with blue hair more than celebrity sightings. Over the past three years, the fest had inhabited three different warehouse venues, each giving the multiple-stage event a cool underground vibe (and making for good selfies backgrounded by graffiti).

This year, BROKE LA will partner with local promoters Spaceland Presents and hold the festival over two days, April 21-22, at the Regent Theater and adjacent rooms, the Love Song bar and Prufrock Pizzeria.

“What we’ve had for the past seven years has been super special,” said Negin Singh, artistic director of CARTEL (Collaborative Arts L.A.), an event production agency that has been one of a collective of groups behind Brokechella/BROKE LA. “But the spaces we used to be able to rent for $5,000 are now $35,000. [Affordable spaces] just don’t exist downtown anymore. And having a $50 ticket is not what we’re all about.”

BROKE LA announced that artist submissions are open through March 2. Get information here.

Early-bird tickets are $25 and on sale here. The lineup will be announced in mid-March. With two 10-hour days of entertainment, the event promises more than 50 indie bands, hip-hop artists and DJs over three stages, plus comedy, art and “activations.”

Singh said organizers are going to great lengths to “make sure the festival feels like our own, and isn’t just another night at the Regent.”

Singh added: “We also knew that by partnering with Spaceland, we’re with somebody who has repped L.A. music for a long time. They have the operations of an event down pat, so now we can get back to the curation aspect.”

Are organizers sad they’re no longer flying the DIY flag?

“It depends on what you think DIY is. For us, it’s about adapting and find the best places to put your art,” Singh said. “For all intents and purposes, we’re doing this ourselves.”