Cultural Carnival Cancelled By Santa Ana Police

By Ed Carrasco Sat., Jan. 14 2012 at 3:07 PM

The-Gromble-OC-Music-Awards-Live-Band-2011-By-Chris-Victorio

Christopher Victorio/OC Weekly

The Gromble were going to play, but didn't

Nothing foretells the end of an event like a dozen cop cars lining up the street.

That's what happened Friday night to the first Culture Carnival, a celebration of local artists with musical selections from bands like The Spell, JUPILAR, The Gromble and Midnight Hour inside a nondescript warehouse in Santa Ana.

More than 300 people were expected to attend when just before the 7 p.m. start date, Santa Ana Police shut down the event. About a dozen officers lined up across the street from the warehouse with batons on hand.

The city's problem? The Culture Carnival not having the proper permits and holding the event in a vacant warehouse.

A dialogue between Micah, the organizer, and a police officer revealed that the Santa Ana Police would not allow the Cultural Carnival to go forward owing to permit and safety issues, but event planners were told by a city official that the event could go on so long as the event is contained indoors.

After speaking with the police officer about the shutdown, Micah (who refused to give his last name) expressed his frustrations about the police presence at a peaceful event to OC Weekly.

"It's just excessive that they had to bring so many police officers to this event," he said. "There was a lot of miscommunications between us and the city [of Santa Ana]."

Police Commander Jeff Owens confirmed Saturday that the police response at the warehouse was in fact related to an "unpermitted event."

On its Facebook page this morning, the promoters said that "THE SHOW WILL GO ON!!!" and that refunds will be issued.

"We are currently looking for a new warehouse to put the culture carnival on at," the statement read. "If anyone has any ideas of spots we could move the carnival to, email us at culturecarnival@gmail.com. Tickets will be refunded in a day or two. Thank you to all who attempted to come out."

Tags:

Culture Carnival, JUPILAR, Midnight Hour, Santa Ana, Santa Ana Police, The Gromble, The Spell

We Recommend

Jules Parquer

Here's what they sent me thru email after the event:

Dear Culture Carnival supporter,

As I'm sure you found out, The Culture Carnival was shut down by police just before doors opened Friday night. There was a huge dispute as to whether or not we needed permits. The city planner of Santa Ana told us we did not need permits as long as the event was contained inside the building so we had planned to keep the event contained. After the cops showed up to shut us down for permits, and we told them we had talked to a city planner, they looked for a reason to shut us down and found out that the warehouse was considered vacant by the city. At this point we shut the doors and continued to deal with the cops late into the evening. We will be releasing a video in the next few days showing the art and space that the event was going to take place in.We are thoroughly disappointed that you did not have the opportunity to see the show that we had been working on for nearly 3 months. We are in the beginning stages of putting together the next show, which will be bigger and better. Most of the artists and bands are still on board for the next show and even more excited about it now that they saw the potential for the event. All this to say, we are more than willing to refund your ticket to The Culture Carnival but would also like to offer you to keep your five dollar ticket which will be valid at the next show (aiming for June of this year). We may raise the price to the next show but if you keep your ticket it will stay at five dollars. We could use the money for further funding of the next show to make it an even more incredible event. If you would like a refund, please email us at culturecarnival@gmail.com and we will happily refund you.We appreciate your support thus far and hope you will stick with us to the next event. Sincerely,The Culture Carnival