Updated post, August 6, 2011, 3:20 p.m.: According to Yost's publicist Ashley Eckenweiler, the Yost will tonight as planned.
ORIGINAL POST, August 6, 2011, 9:51 a.m.: While our managing editor Gustavo Arellano is asking important questions about the Yost Theater, we just want to know: Will it open tonight? The OC Register yesterday reported that the Yost wasn't allowed to open as planned and canceled the Focus XL event with Colette and DJ Heather headlining. Today, the Register says
At the order of city building inspectors, workers on Friday evening began tearing up the roof of the 99-year-old Yost Theater. Apparently, some necessary step was skipped the first time the roof was repaired and now they must go back and redo it.
The Yost folks said the job was estimated at 200 man-hours. They had
13 men and 24 hours, so they hoped the job would be done and signed-off
by the city of Santa Ana in time for tonight's “grand reopening” concert
featuring Unwritten Law.
The Yost did get approvals to begin
serving food and beverages at the theater's Camden Restaurant and its two bars. If the Yost can get a city occupancy permit before 8 p.m. tonight, the show will go on, as the East End Music (+More) Festival has been planned around the Yost reopening.
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Yesterday's Register story said that Jay Trevino, head of Santa
Ana's planning and building agency said that various safety measures: fire sprinklers, fire walls, and emergency exits have not been completed, so the management canceled the event.
While the partners stand to lose about $10,000 in guarantees for each
canceled performance, Lluy said their reputations as concert promoters
were also on the line…what began as a minor roof repair recently has snowballed into
a much bigger set of obstacles, Lluy said.Those, and the installation
of new bars and a restaurant inside the theater, have required overhauls
of plumbing, air conditioning, and electrical systems, in addition to
structural repairs. Construction work has been going on 24 hours a day
for the past three weeks, he said.Lluy estimated that between the partners and their landlords, about
$2.7 million has been poured into the 99-year-old building in the past
three years. The amount has “gone up dramatically in the past week,” he
said.
