The healthy- and heated- debate about the merits of music line-ups at this Summer's two competing street fests (Fuck Yeah Fest and Sunset Junction Street Fair), may be getting a little more lively after our Nightranger column this week.

(For the record we will probably go to both, but we're definitely looking forward to SJ more than FYF. No amount of indier-than-thou buzz bands can compete with Bad Brains, Fishbone, Ohio Players and Lee Scratch Perry as far as we're concerned, and despite assumptions made in the comments section of previous posts on this topic, one opinion does not speak for the entire queue of Weekly writers).

This week, Nightranger scored exclusive scoop on the festivities at SJ-adjacent El Chavo restaurant, who've held wild parking lot parties (called “Chavolot”) during SJ for the past couple years. We've learned the restaurant has made a deal with club honchos Cody Bayne, Nacho Nava, Josh Peace and Mario Diaz to book and host Sunday, Aug. 21 there. These are the boys behind some of the best gay and mixed crowd clubs in town: Mustache Mondays, Full Frontal, Dance Bitch! and many more, so we expect an utterly awesome line-up of live acts and DJs to grace the lot.

They're currently getting the bill together, and Bayne tells us some electro-fying divas top their wish list, but no matter who they book, one thing is for sure, these fellas will bring it Sunday. SJ started as a queer-centric street party after all.

We hear Liz Garo and Spaceland/Echo will bring their considerable network of band, club and DJ connections to the Chavolot line-up on Saturday, Aug. 21, making the outdoor fete a nice pitstop both days before entering the Junction. In related news, we ran into former Spaceland booker Jennifer Tefft last week, and she filled us in on the Fold stage she booked with Scott Sterling inside SJ: The Deadly Syndrome, Crystal Antlers, Sam Sparro and Inffinity (an awesome Journey tribute). None of these have been mentioned much in the SJ vs. FYF discussion, but we're looking forward to 'em.

SJ circa 2007; Credit: Lina Lecaro

SJ circa 2007; Credit: Lina Lecaro

Don't get us wrong, we've been going to SJ since we were a kid, we've worked it many times, covered it even more than that, and we've been critical of the thing over the years. Stuff like the admission price hike, the re-routing, and yes, even lesser line-ups have pissed us off. And we've written so (no matter if the Weekly was a sponsor or not, by the way). Enough that organizer Michael Steele has been pissed off at us. But this year's line-up, with its familiar mix of soul stars, punk faves and hot thangs actually has us looking forward to it this time. With the El Chavo news, even more so.

Look for updates on the El Chavo parking lot line-up here as it develops.

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