San Diego
City Manager John Lockwood has recommended that two of three applicants divide $30,000 in city money to produce a “freedom festival” of the arts to run in conjunction with the San Diego Arts Festival, “Treasures of the Soviet Union,” from Oct. 21 to Nov. 11.
In a report Friday, the manager recommended that $25,000 go to Freedom Festival Inc., a nonprofit organization specifically formed for the festival. The group had proposed presenting a variety of folk concerts and arts and crafts displays featuring 16 ethnic groups over three weeks, at a total cost of $56,000.
The manager recommended that $5,000 go to the Llan Lael Foundation for its proposed “Avenue of the Arts,” which would close four blocks Nov. 11 and 12 for artists’ displays, ethnic food booths and hands-on activities for children. The Avenue of the Arts was budgeted at $18,200. The group had requested only $14,000 from the city.
The City Council, responding to criticism about worldwide victims of Soviet aggression, earmarked $30,000--1% of the $3 million it awarded to the San Diego Arts Festival--for an alternative “freedom festival.”
The city manager did not recommend that the remaining applicant, Prophet World Beat Productions, receive funding. World Beat had proposed a series of performances and workshops of Japanese and African dance and music.
The City Council’s Public Services and Safety Committee will take up the matter at its Wednesday meeting.
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