GLOW

KCRW on the Beach

When the City of Santa Monica called us a month ago to tell us about an all-night art event they were planning and asked if we would participate, we were IN. I mean, we love free events that we can invite our listeners to. Little did we know that the event they expected 15,000 people to attend would draw closer to 100,000.

The crowd was as diverse as any I’ve ever seen and I think that may be the biggest success of the night. Unfortunately, having that many people in one place also had its problems. When Garth Trinidad kicked off his DJ set at 10pm, there was already a group of dancing folks pressed up against the barricade. By the time his set ended at midnight, there were bodies as far as I could see (from behind the DJ booth) and people partying it up in the sand below. (some camped out in the middle of our logo, see photo by Beth Topping).

Raul Campos took over after midnight with an old-school house set and the crowd was really digging it. Sadly, the cops pulled the plug a little after 1am, much to our dismay. (as Raul said, you know it’s a good party when the cops have to shut it down. He was having a blast.) We knew the crowd was full of listeners who heard about GLOW through us and we hated the idea of letting people down. Jeremy Sole’s records never even got to touch the turntables.

The good news is one word – possibility. Los Angeles has a lot of public space (particularly, Santa Monica has a lot of sand) that is not utilized for events like this. I love that tons of people came to Santa Monica from across Los Angeles for an art/music event. I think there are ideas for the future floating around in a lot of people’s heads. 

Thanks sincerely to everyone who came out. (more photos below)
RR

p.s. Did anyone actually see the grunion run?

Garth Trinidad at Glow

Raul Campos at Glow 2