COUNTERPUNCH LETTERS : Experiencing L.A. Fest

My experiences of the Los Angeles Festival were somewhat different from Laura Zucker’s (Counterpunch, “Los Angeles Festival Discovers the People,” Sept. 17).

While the festival was supposedly more accessible than the 1987 edition, I found it far more difficult to get seats. I dispatched my order form a day after receiving it in the mail and received tickets for about 60% of the events I had requested, versus about nine out of 10 in 1987. I wound up spending just a little more than half of my 1987 festival budget.

I wanted to spend more, but couldn’t. Unlike three years ago, second performances of sold-out events weren’t scheduled--or, unlike 1987, they were scheduled but we weren’t notified. Reaching 1990 festival personnel by phone for updates was like trying to get a New York information operator during the phone strike.

Friends who had ticket “in’s”--buddies working for ticket agencies, etc.--had no problem getting tickets to Wooster, Rachel Rosenthal, Bread and Puppet, etc. I stayed home those evenings. In fairness, there was true democracy once you got tickets and got in; Peter Sellars sat right behind me during “Ignore the Dents.”

MIKE FALCON

Los Angeles