The popular Pasadena Chalk Festival — known as among the world’s largest of its kind — has been canceled on the cusp of its 30th annual event in the city, organizers said Thursday, April 27, prompting a move to keep the event in the city.
The organizer, the Light Bringer Project, said it had been forced to cancel the event, which was scheduled for Father’s Day weekend in June, after event costs that traditionally would have picked up by the prior owner of the property would not be picked up this year.
It would have been the 30th anniversary of the event, 15 of which have been at the Paseo, on Colorado Boulevard.
Organizers called the cancellation a huge hit for an event that they said had found a happy balance between Pasadena’s commercial and artistic interests in organizing the annual event, which raised money for school arts programs.
City officials agreed, pledging to look for ways to keep it alive in the city.
Tom Coston, chair of the board of the Light Bringer Project, said it traditionally was a good balance, a kind of “oil and water” combination that worked.
“It was a very nice working relationship,” he said, adding that the weekend event at the open-air mall drew thousands to Pasadena as a destination to a free event.
“We always called it a museum without walls,” he said.
Indeed. Each year, the Paseo’s spacious concourse and walkways are adorned with stunning chalk art from hundreds of artists from within and outside Southern California.
In 2010, it was declared the world’s largest street-painting festival, its organizers said.
But late last year, the Paseo, at 280 East Colorado Blvd., was purchased by the Onni Group, reportedly in a foreclosure transaction.
Onni Group, a Vancouver-based developer, but with offices in Los Angeles, could not be reached for comment after inquiries by phone and email.
Coston said that costs such as for maintenance, security, set-up and movement of hardware and electrical services —…
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