The Next Beverly Hills Committee held a Special Meeting on Aug. 9 with City Council liaisons Vice Mayor Julian Gold and Lester Friedman to select a proposal for the fifth Next Night, scheduled to take place on Oct. 22. Next Night, the committee’s annual outdoor block-party festival on South Beverly Drive, was first hosted in August of 2016, and has drawn approximately 2,000 guests. Due to COVID-19, Next Night didn’t take place in 2020 or 2021. This year, attendees can expect live entertainment, food trucks, games, local vendors, beer and wine gardens, pop-up shops, a children’s area, a dedicated social media tent and more.
With the event about two months away, liaisons agreed to recommend waiving the bidding requirements in the interest of time and accepted the proposal by Authentic Agency as the event production vendor in amount not to exceed $142,900 and an additional $42,900 for talent and production fees. The number is well over the $100,000 they were expected to budget for the night and the approved $150,000 budget to cover the cost of concert production and talent fees along with in-kind items such as permits.
“The hope is definitely a DJ, because we’re going to start during daylight hours and do a lot of family friendly stuff, so you’re going to want some background music going on,” Next Chair Tiffany Davis said. “Then once the stage production starts, the goal would be to have people do small opening acts that could be community level talent, and then some sort of a headliner that has a name that people have heard of. It would not be a level, superstar talent, but something that would bring people to the event even if they don’t live in Beverly Hills.”
Depending on the level of talent, the total cost for the event is estimated from anywhere between $172,900 and $212,900. “Somebody like a Lance Bass from NSYNC or like a 90′ retro act,” Davis said.
“I’m okay with it, but I would really look hard for other sources of funds,” Gold said. City staff noted that there are potentially unencumbered funds that haven’t been asked to be carried forward for the next fiscal year as a possible financing source.
“I think right now it’s really a confluence of a lot of different economic events,” Deputy City Manager Gabriella Yap said of the cost. “With inflation and supply chain issues, that are causing these proposals to come in much higher.”
The committee will present the Next Night proposal, with a selection of possible talent, and budget for approval to the entire City Council at its Aug. 23 meeting.
