This Sunday, Main Street Hosts the Festival of Chariots. Next Weekend It’s the First of Three “Open Main Street” Events Where It Will Be Open Both Days

This Sunday, Main Street will host the Festival of Chariots from 10 a.m. to noon. The parade is the Santa Monica extension of an Indian Holiday that stretches back at least hundreds of years and is expected to draw 40,000 revelers. The parade features a procession of three red, blue and gold, ancient style, east-Indian chariots pulled by members of the celebration. Main Street will be closed to vehicular traffic from 8:00 a.m. until the parade passes through, around 11:30. For more information, click here.

Next weekend, Main Street will be open for many uses, but closed to through traffic from noon to 7 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday for Open Main Street. Next weekend is the first of three Open Main Streets, the others will be the weekend of September 9 and 10 and the last will be on October 21 and 22.

Open Main Street is a free community festival using the public space of Main Street featuring al fresco dining, live music, local vendors, activities for kids, and different programming each of the three months between Strand and Pier Avenue.

In August, the special programming includes Drag Bingo in the beer garden. Future months will include a ‘Day of the Dog’ collaboration on September 9 and a Halloween Pumpkin Patch in October.

For kids, Open Main Street offers programming including musical story time, soccer, face painting and sensory stations. More physical activities such as rock climbing, and giant games (Jenga and Connect 4) are free for all ages and will be offered all three weekends.

For more information about this and the upcoming Open Main Streets visit the official website.

About The Author

Damien Newton

Damien is the executive director of the Southern California Streets Initiative which publishes Santa Monica Next, Streetsblog Los Angeles, Streetsblog San Francisco, Streetsblog California and Longbeachize.

See author's posts