Last Friday I was a part of Downtown Dark Nights, an outdoor arts, entertainment, music and shopping event held a few times a year at LA Live. This was the first time I've taken my side business, OsoPorto, outside of the South Bay, and I was one of the vendors in the popup marketplace that surrounds the plaza. It's a pretty cool event filled with maybe ten or so live muralists, wandering (and lit!) performers ranging from people on stilts to tap dancers, along with live music and DJ's. The coolest thing about it was how you were surrounded with things happening around you everywhere you turned. It was tough to be stuck in the booth working the whole time, but I tried to step out a few times to get a taste of everything going on. (A little pro-tip for future ones if you go: several of the restaurants surrounding the plaza have $5 food and drink specials, but they are not inside the event itself. So go grab some at one restaurant early, wander the event a bit, pop in another restaurant, go back out and wander some more, etc. and make a back and forth night of it.) As for my booth, its always a learning experience. People were more enthusiastic about what I was showing than usual, but fewer were buying. My hunch is that people were out for a night out and not wanting to deal with having to carry anything, so I'll have to ponder how to work around that if I get to be a part of future ones. Even so, it was still a fun event to be a part of, and nice to break out of the beach cities bubble, too.