Brokechella 2012!!

Tuesday/April 24, 2012/ 10 p.m. London Time

Hello Everyone,

I’m at my hotel in London and wide awake. My husband is working a few concerts this week with the boy-pop-R&B-group Mindless Behavior. The roadie’s mind is obviously on work. My mind, however, is still on four nights ago at an event called Brokechella.

Have you ever experienced something so amazing that it flickers in your memory like a waning neon sign that refuses to burn out? That’s Brokechella to me.

Last year, in a last-ditch effort to appease me for missing out on one of the biggest music festival’s of the year (that my husband just happened to work), the roadie drove us from Coachella straight to Brokechella – a much cheaper Coachella organized by the cARTel, a collaborative arts collective in Los Angeles.

The idea was a fluke, said cARtel Artistic Director and Founder Negin Singh. The cARTel had accidentally scheduled one of their many concert events on the same night as Coachella. “I was like I don’t have money to go, none of my friends have the money to go,” Singh said about the festival that could cost up to $700 per ticket.

So, expecting everyone else to be at Coachella, the cARTel – determined not to feel like they’ve missed all the fun – went on with their event anyway and named it Brokechella. The first-annual Brokechella, held at the Airliner club, was touted as “a one night music art party extravaganza in the spirit of the festival nobody could afford.” More than 400 people showed up, Singh said.

This year, the second-annual Brokechella promised the same as the first, only bigger and better. The nominal $5 cover charge hasn’t changed. To accommodate the event’s rapidly increasing number of frugal fans, Brokechella moved to Six01 Studios – a 7,000-square-foot warehouse in Downtown LA. Early Saturday evening, Singh was already expecting at least 700 people to show up.

The beauty of Brokechella is, not only do you get more bang for your buck, you are suddenly commingling with some of the finest artists, food truck vendors, and indie musicians in the city.

Where else can you rock out to bands such as Infantree and Gypsy Death Star while you pig out on some coconut rice from Starry Kitchen and lounge on an oversized pillow that resembles a bag of chips? Then, to stretch your legs, you can either get your face painted, paint something yourself on a wall, or walk over to the bar for a cheap drink.

Ultimately, it’s about people having good times without spending too many dimes. “This is something they want, to be part of the conversation. They don’t want to feel like they’re left out,” Singh said. “You can get drunk, get a ticket, and eat food and you would only spend 20 dollars.” She added, that’s  “not even parking at Coachella.”

By the way, parking was free at Brokechella – just say’n!

Wifey of a Roadie – Out! Check out my pictuures from this year’s Brokechella….