Hell yes! Santa Ana is firing on all cylinders on March 4.
Once upon a time, The OC had The Eclectic Orange Festival. It was 3+ days of music and stage events held in and around the Segerstrom Center. This year, Eclectic Orange was worn down to one concert by Kronos Quartet. I love Kronos, but one concert does not a festival make.
Enter Santa Ana’s Boca De Oro Art & Literature Festival. It is one day but what a big day it is! And it is all free! It features 10+ hours of continuous and simultaneous literary, arts and music events around the historic Calle De Cautro district and the Santa Ana Arts district. The event starts at 2pm. The Boca De Oro web site has the details and maps. Note that they have separate schedules for the literature events and the music & arts events, so read the web site carefully and print out a copy of the festival map.
The festival was formed through a partnership of way too many local organizations to list here, but please read about them. I find it so gratifying that these various local public and private bodies can come together and create such rich event.
Two other events are happening that night in the districts. There is the monthly Downtown Santa Ana Artwalk (the average event brings in 3500 attendees and 20 participating business). It, too, is free.
The other event is not free but it is a very good deal: A Leonard Cohen tribute concert performed by Perla Batalla, a Grammy-nominated singer who got her start as one of Leonard Cohen’s backup singers. There are several videos of her performing Cohen songs on Youtube and she is quite good. To add more color to your night, check out the venue: The Church of the Messiah. The church was constructed in 1889. It is both the oldest public building in continuous use and the oldest church building in Orange County. Tickets are only $18 for a wonderful singer singing wonderful, familiar songs and in this beautiful venue! The 8pm show sold out quickly. A second show was added at 10pm.
I must give a shout out to Santa Ana Sites for organizing this concert. They are doing incredible work in raising the arts profile in Santa Ana. One glance at their past events and you will see what I mean. Santa Ana Sites is a community partnership, presenting contemporary performance in public and private spaces throughout Downtown Santa Ana. The traveling forum is designed to provide the community shared artistic experiences, encouraging the discovery of diverse environments and architectural space.
I worked in Santa Ana in the early 90’s. It was a scary place. How things have changed for the better.