Stephan Klein, President of the Abbot Kinney District Association, which stages the annual Abbot Kinney Festival every September, said, “Venice is evolving, and yet it keeps its old charm, and the festival brings the community together. So many people benefit from this event… I love to interact with people and make big things happen that change the way we think and live.”
This year’s festival will be held Sunday, September 25, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., on Abbot Kinney Boulevard, between Main Street and Venice Boulevard.
The festival’s Youth & Family Court, at the northeast corner of Venice and Abbot Kinney Boulevards, will be sponsored by Inside Out Community Arts for the third year, and will feature live entertainment all day long/
On the program are world music, dance, storytelling, puppetry, theatre, folk music and poetry, as well as arts and crafts, food, rides, games, and face painting.
Among the performers who will appear are Rhythm Child, Ekzopuppets, Lineage Dance, The Hollow Trees, City at Peace, X Cubed, Virtue Youth Group of VUMC, MEXICA, Torrance Dance Company, Escuela De Baile Tradicional Peruano, and Sri Dance Company.
The Abbot Kinney Festival has been a Venice community event for 20 years. More than 60,000 people attended the Festival last year.
Three years ago, Inside Out, Venice Arts, and the Boys & Girls Club of Venice collaborated to create the Youth and Family Court. This year, people will be invited to contribute to a new community mural.
All proceeds from the Youth and Family Court will benefit Inside Out Community Arts’ free after school programming for middle-school youth.
Inside Out Community Arts Co-Founder, Jonathan Zeichner said, “The Arts provide a language that everyone can speak – and sing and draw and dance – and the Youth & Family Court is a gathering spot for friends, neighbors and community members of all ages and backgrounds to celebrate our common humanity and have a blast!”
Venice’s arts institutions, Beyond Baroque, SPARC and 826LA, will celebrate the festival at an open house on Sunday.
A nonprofit writing center that provides free instruction to Los Angeles youth, 826LA will hold open its writing lab at 7:30 p.m. and volunteers and staff will be on hand to talk about its programs.
The bookstore at Beyond Baroque, Los Angeles’ oldest literary institution, will be open from 11a.m to 6p.m., and some of its poets will read at the festival. The store sells poetry books, zines, and one-of-a-kind books, and visitors can pick up information about upcoming readings and free workshops.
The Social and Public Resource Center, SPARC, is an arts center that produces, preserves and conducts educational programs about community based public art works. An exhibition of over 70 rare posters produced by Peace Press will be on display as part of the Venice People’s Centennial Celebration in the SPARC gallery.
826LA and SPARC are located at 685 Venice Boulevard. Beyond Baroque is next door at 681 Venice Boulevard.For more information about the festival, go to: www.abbotkinneyblvd.com/festival.
