Fest Is For The Birds, Say Neighbors

The proposed AngelFest – three days of family-friendly music, food and culture proposed in L.A.’s Woodley Park – has run afoul of conservationists and bird-watchers who say the park’s location in the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area is inappropriate for such an event.

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Japanese Garden

Organizers bill AngelFest as an event to rival Coachella Music & Arts Festival, with five stages and room for up to 65,000 daily attendees that is intended to “celebrate the city and music of Los Angeles.”

The festival is proposed from Oct. 7-9, pending approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that manages the San Fernando Valley’s flood control basin in the area, according to the L.A. Daily News.

Promoter Make Good Group has already received permission for the event from the L.A. Parks Department and a 338-page environmental assessment is to be released by the corps, the paper reports. That doesn’t appease conservationists in the area, who have started a petition against the festival that has received nearly 3,000 signatures.

“It is absolutely inappropriate, adjacent to the Wildlife Reserve, without a buffer to sensitive habitat,” the paper quoted Muriel Lotin of the San Fernando Valley Audubon Society. “There will be many, many birds that will be frightened away from this area.”

AngelFest, however, has received support from the parks department – which would benefit from a city park user fee of $250,000 and a share of ticket proceeds, most of which would be spent on Sepulveda Basin upgrades, according to the Daily News.

The area’s neighborhood councils also approve, on the basis that over the proposed intial three-year run, the basin could see more than $1 million in upgrades that potentially include a dog park, bike path lights, new fencing, kiosks and security for the Wildlife Reserve.