Saturday, June 30th Festival Obscura hosted a fundraising celebration to benefit Long Beach’s historic Sunnyside Cemetery. The event included over 45 craft breweries, along with live music performances, food trucks and horror related artists and vendors. The location was magical, the lines were short and quick moving, organization was impressive and the brews were of course, delicious. The best part? It was all for a wonderful cause…
Much of the cemetery has fallen into disrepair over the years and has come dangerously close to shutting down. The grounds are mostly dirt with the occasional cluster, (ok there’s actually a crap ton) of gopher holes strewn around, but in the midst of that are an abundance of beautiful gravestones and gigantic trees dotting the property. Volunteers with Friends of Sunnyside Cemetery have dedicated hundreds of hours over the last year to clear the grounds of waste high weeds and other cleanup and maintenance. As awesome as that is, it’s not enough to keep this amazing place open! They need funds to battle the rampant gopher problem and restore the drought ridden grounds. This ingenious beer festival was a step in the right direction, and I hope it served to bring some much needed funds to keep this place going. Here’s to hoping it may even become an annual event!
This place is absolutely worth saving. Check in with Friends of Sunnyside Cemetery to find out how you can help. Donate your time, donate funds, go visit and see it for yourself. It is an underrated, overlooked historical gem worthy of your attention and admiration… I give you my Horror Girl Guarantee!
Historical Society of Long Beach will be hosting their annual living history tour of the cemetery October 27th, check their website for tickets and info. (Yes, that’s the first official #Octivities recommendation for 2018).
Sunnyside Cemetery is located at 1095 E Willow St, Long Beach, CA 90806 and is open to the public seven days a week, 7am-4pm. Bonus: There’s a brewery right across the street. Peruse the grounds then stop off for a flight and some food at Ten Mile Brewing
Angel Melanson 
Reblogged this on .
LikeLike