The line trudged forward at a snail’s pace, often halting completely for several minutes at a time.
Outside a hot back lot in the middle of Downtown Los Angeles, hundreds of twenty-and-thirty-somethings queued in order to attend Coachella’s more economical distant cousin, Brokechella.
Started in 2011, Brokechella has strived to be the premier spot to be for Southern Californians unable to make it to Coachella.
Upon entrance, attendees were immediately greeted to the sight of food trucks, organized neatly into a line, creating a threshold past which the four Brokechella stages stood.
The event functioned as a method of exposure for many of its performers, who for the most part were unheard of by guests. While many attendees didn’t go as a fan, they spent their Saturday solely for the experience of Brokechella itself.
“No, I don’t know any of [the bands],” said Theza Umali, a recent University of California, Irvine graduate. “My friends told me about [Brokechella], and I thought it sounded cool, so I decided to go.”
The artists playing at the event all call Los Angeles home, further reinforcing the idea that Brokechella is uniquely a LA-experience.
Marvel the Gr8, returning artist and performer at the event,is from Southern California and has been a rapper for eight years.
Between the two years, he said there have been a few noticeable differences.
“Triple the people, triple the food,” he said. “It’s huge, and I’m pretty stoked.”
One outside stage, dubbed The cARTel, had music blaring, while the other three were set up comfortably inside three separate warehouses, each with varying acoustic levels.
The Shifty Rhythms stage, located in an adjacent warehouse, housed an isolated area with half-pipes for BMX bicycles riders. A hallway connected this room to The Lounge, a more laid-back room with photography areas that doubled as a beer garden.
The last stage, Brownies and Lemonade, stood across a crowded and noisy alleyway parallel to the lounge. It was by far the loudest stage, as music was leaking through its walls.
In addition to the food trucks and stages, a dozen or so vendors congregated near the center, all eager to promote their unique wares.
Carl Green sought to sell merchandise from his business, which he operates with a friend and his brother, Love Nail Tree, a store specializing in graphic t-shirts with stories imprinted on them.
“We hire different writers to write different stories, and it gives them [the clothes] character,” Green said.
The event held strong through the night. By the end, patrons wobbled back to their cars, a consequence of their fatigued legs just as much as the excessive amount of beer.