Indie arts fest goes to downtown L.A.

ArthurNights, a four-day music and arts festival originally planned for three venues in Echo Park, instead will be held at the downtown Palace Theatre, said Jay Babcock, editor and co-owner of Arthur magazine, co-presenter of the event with Spaceland productions.

The all-ages event, Oct. 19 to 22, the third festival in the last 14 months mounted by the counterculture ‘zine, features indie acts such as Devendra Banhart, the Fiery Furnaces, Be Your Own Pet, Comets on Fire and the Sun Ra Arkestra as well as visual and spoken-word artists.

It had been planned for the Echo, the Jensen Rec Center and the Ex Plex, a new room located one floor beneath the Echo on Sunset Boulevard. But construction and permitting delays have prohibited the Ex Plex from being ready for the festival.

“To have it in a historic theater, now it really feels like an occasion,” Babcock said of the new venue, a hall built in 1911 at 630 S. Broadway. Ticket prices are expected to remain the same: $24 per day, or $80 for a festival pass.

Kevin Bronson