Despite growing into an annually attended music festival visited by several thousand, team Brokechella decided to make some significant changes to both their name and location.
“We reached a point for Brokechella where it was time to come out of the cocoon a little bit and step out of the shadow of the name,” explained Brownies & Lemonade co-founder Evan Washington about the name change from Brokechella to Broke LA. “In some circles, the name was bigger than the event.”
Following the much-publicized trademark and service mark infringement brought against Hoodchella by Coachella Music Festival organizers Goldenvoice, it was rumored that America’s largest user submitted music festival was under the same threat. According to B&L’s co-founder Kush Fernando, that wasn’t the issue. “I have no idea what Coachella is up to nowadays,” he said. “They didn’t sue us.” Washington added that the goal was to simply create their own identity and image they could call their own.
For the past four or so years, the festival featuring four separate stages representing Hip Hop, EDM, Rock and comedy sat under the historic 6th Street Bridge in Los Angeles’ Downtown area. Due to infrastructure problems and plans for a nearly half-a-billion dollar replacement set to be done in 2019, the tourist attraction was demolished in early February. Washington joked, “ We can’t be the same festival we were cause the shit doesn’t exist anymore.” For the rebranding, the festival will take place a few blocks down at the Imperial Arts Studios campus which is nearly the same size as the former location. “Really easy to get from one place to another and the capacity is just as big,” said Fernando. “It’s going to be great.”
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Name and location change aside, Brownies & Lemonade will continue Brokechella’s tradition of delivering the best relative unknowns in music from around the nation. Washington called this year the largest and strongest with over a thousand in submissions from as far as New York and Midwest. “We wanted it to be where anyone had a possibility to play regardless of how big or small you were,” added Fernando of the B&L stage. “It’s meant to be for someone who has like ten followers on Twitter or ten thousand, you have equal possibility based on how talented you are.” Standouts include Cam and China (formerly of Pink Dollaz), Tate Tucker, Kosha Dillz and ADamn Killa among others.
Broke LA kicks off April 23 and for ticket information click here.
