LA Phil 100: Celebrate LA!

In late 2016, CARS was approached by the LA Phil with the challenge of creating an event suitable for the Phil's 100th birthday celebration - an event that would somehow connect the two homes of the acclaimed orchestra – Walt Disney Concert Hall in Downtown and the Hollywood Bowl. CARS task, in collaboration with the brilliant staff at the Phil, was to find a way to connect these two venues by producing some kind of event on the streets of Los Angeles.

CARS developed a number of options but the one that won the day was a three-way collaboration between CicLAvia, the LA Phil and Community Arts Resources. On September 30, 2018, "Celebrate LA" launched the Los Angeles Philharmonic's centennial year with a free, eight-mile day-long celebration that stretched from DTLA to the Hollywood Hills.

The Walt Disney Concert Hall was connected to the Hollywood Bowl with a special edition of CicLAvia, LA's own open-streets festival. With programming by the LA Phil's musicians and ensembles on stages and on the streets as well as 90 different groups curated by the LA Phil and CARS, the massive extravaganza of music and performance featured 1,800 artists performing at six community music festivals, six site-specific music installations and 16 roving groups providing music and whimsy along the entire route.

The day culminated with a huge free concert at the Hollywood Bowl, featuring Gustavo Dudamel, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and very special guests. In terms of the number of contracted artists, Celebrate LA was the largest arts event in Los Angeles since the opening of the 1984 Olympics.