Commission discusses expanding March Arts Festival with evening performances; city awarded Art-in-Parks grant

At its Oct. 14 meeting the Cathedral City Public Arts Commission discussed expanding the March Arts Festival to include more performing-arts programming and evening events, and staff reported the city was awarded a state Art-in-Parks grant to support four art events in city parks, including activities at Esperanza Park.

Staff briefed the commission that when the budget was set the commission allocated a sub-budget for performing arts and that amount — referenced during the meeting as $5,000 — would be used to underwrite some performance opportunities during the festival. Staff said event logistics, including permit fees for the amphitheater and capacity issues, will factor into whether performances are daytime background music or evening headliners.

Commissioners raised several programming ideas: adding jazz or spoken-word sets after daytime visual-arts activities, partnering with city efforts to stage a blues festival, and using multiple small stages or performance pockets that would let visual-art attendees take breaks and experience live music. Commissioners and staff discussed the practical barriers to evening programming, including facility permit fees and vendor requirements.

Staff also reported that Cathedral City applied for and received an Art-in-Parks grant to fund four park-based events with themes around the past, present, future and healing. "We applied again this year, and we were awarded it," Anne said during the meeting. The grant will fund programming in Esperanza Park and will include a mural process that seeks community participation; the grant period is one year.

Why it matters: Expanding the festival to include performing arts would change how the event is produced and budgeted, and the Art-in-Parks grant brings new, time-limited funds that the commission and staff must allocate for community engagement, mural selection and event logistics.

Next steps: Commissioners asked staff to meet with city event staff (referred to in the meeting as Ryan and Adam) to determine permitting needs, costs and whether the festival program can include evening events. Staff agreed to connect commissioners with city event coordinators and communications staff to identify potential performing groups and to determine whether costs can be shared among grant recipients.

Outstanding/unspecified items: The meeting record did not provide line-item budgets for evening programming or a final list of performers; staff advised commissioners to gather suggestions for performers within the commission’s budget and to coordinate with communications and events staff on venue logistics.

Ending note: Commissioners encouraged continued outreach to local artists and arts organizations and asked staff to return with more detailed logistics and cost estimates as the festival planning proceeds.