Sunday’s Lummis Day Fest to Celebrate Northeast L.A.’s Arts and Culture

Rock music from Boyle Heights and Japan. Cuban jazz. Folk. Mariachi. Music lovers take note—the 8th Annual Lummis Day Festival has you covered.

A one-of-a-kind celebration of arts, history and culture in Northeast L.A., the Lummis Day Festival is scheduled this coming Sunday, from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sponsored by a string of neighborhood councils, including the Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council, the Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council, the Glassell Park Neighborhood Council and the Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council, the festival is open to the public and entirely free of cost. Some 9,000 people turned up for last year’s festival; roughly the same number, if not more, are expected Sunday.

Like last year, the festival will take place at two sites in the Highland Park area. The main stages for performances will again be located in the Heritage Square Museum, a hidden gem at 3800 Homer St., where “the best of home-grown Northeast L.A. music, dance, food and community resources will be presented on four stages amid the historic buildings preserved on the unique museum’s grounds,” according to Eliot Sekuler, one of the festival’s co-founders.

The festival will open with readings by a string of acclaimed poets led by Suzanne Lummis, the director of the Los Angeles Poetry Festival and the granddaughter of Charles Fletcher Lummis, a Massachusetts-born journalist and polymath who was one of L.A.’s earliest historic preservationists and the founder of the Southwest Museum.

The poetry reading will be held at Lummis Home, a stone and timber mansion surrounded by striking native plant gardens that Charles Lummis built at the turn of the 20th century. Located at 200 E. Ave. 43 in Montecito Heights and now owned by the City of the Los Angeles, the historic site will also feature art exhibits, book sales and crafts.

Visitors are welcome to stroll around the 116-year-old mission-style compound that was influenced by Pueblo Indian dwellings. In addition, festivalgoers can avail of docent-led tours to some of the historic buildings at Heritage Square Museum.

The Lummis Day Festival includes plenty of family activities centered around children. The Puppets & Players Theatre, a festival family favorite, will be on hand with its inimitable brand of children’s entertainment. Other family activities include making Tongva/Chumash clapper sticks and planting at the Home Depot/Color Spot booth.

A shuttle bus, provided by City Council District 1, will ferry festivalgoers between venues and parking areas.

Click here to view the full Lummis Day Festival performance line-up and schedule as well as to get parking information.

Here is the festival's schedule of events:

Lummis Home and Garden, 200 E. Ave. 43 (gates open at 10 a.m.):

10:30 a.m. - Musical interlude by Joe Calderon, guitarist
11 a.m. - Introduction and poem by Suzanne Lummis Poetry readings
Noon - Reception
Noon to 5 p.m. - Art and crafts exhibition
(The El Alisal Poetry Event is supported by Poets & Writers, Inc., with a grant it received from the James Irvine Foundation.)

Heritage Square Museum, 3800 Homer St. (gates open at 12 noon):

STAGE ONE
12:30 p.m. - Ted Garcia, Native American Blessing & Welcome Song
12:45 p.m - Arrival of the Burbank MS YS Drum Line and Drill Team
1 p.m. - KoTolan
2 p.m. - Jim Kweskin plus The Crockett Sisters
3:30 p.m. - Little Faith
4:45 p.m. - Iliana Rose Cuban Jazz Band
6 p.m. - Ollin

STAGE TWO
1:30 - Los Angeles Choreographers and Dancers
3:00 - Jessica Pacheco of Flamenco Express
4:15 - Ballet Coco
5:30 - Lineage Dance Company

STAGE THREE
1 p.m. - Plaza De La Raza Youth Mariachi Ensemble
1:20 p.m. - The Puppets and Players Little Theater
1:45 p.m. - Many Distant Cities
2:15 p.m. - The Puppets and Players Little Theater
2:45 p.m. - The Old Round
3:30 p.m. - Yesteryears Dancers
4:15 p.m. - The Tall Men Group
5 p.m. - The Fly By Night Blues Band

STAGE FOUR
1 p.m. - Pio Pico Middle School Stage Band
2 p.m. - Sueño Eterno
3 p.m. - Genesee Hall
4 p.m. - El Profe
5 p.m. - Brian & Nick
5:30 p.m. - Volcano Police