Festival Of The Arts Hopes To Put South Bay On Artistic Map

TORRANCE, CA — If a music festival in a hot, dusty desert town can become a world-famous, multi-million-dollar happening, maybe there's hope for an inaugural bash Saturday in Torrance.

The South Bay's daylong Festival of the Arts won't feature the huge rock stars who show up for Coachella, but admission is free and there will be more than a dozen bands, singers and magicians on three stages. The headliner will be Perla Batalla, a Grammy nominated backup singer known for her vocals supporting Leonard Cohen.

The gravelly voiced Cohen died in November after a storied career that started with comparisons to the young Bob Dylan. Famed for "Hallelujah," "Suzanne," "Dance Me to the End of Love," he had high praise for his backup star Batalla.

"Onstage, offstage, digital or analog, I love Perla Batalla," he said. A Festival of the Arts statement said Cohen told Perla, "Sing for the people. So much suffering. You have the power to heal."

Batalla has recorded two "tribute albums of Cohen's music and performed staged shows to give audiences insight to the friend she knew and loved."

She is slated to perform at 3 p.m. Saturday at the festival, where she will display "her ability to deal (with) issues of race, loss of identity and merging cultures."

The festival will run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Torrance Cultural Arts Center at 3330 Civic Center Drive in Torrance.

— City News Service, photo courtesy of TOCA