By Sara Gomez, September 15, 2026
Artists and creatives filled Lopez Urban Farm Sept. 5 with tables showcasing zines, artwork, fashion and food for Sunburnt Fest.
The festival ran from noon to 9 p.m. and featured two stages where guests listened to poets sharing their original work and watched artists like Noamz perform. Noamz played the flute and sang songs about loving herself first.
The festival brought together different kinds of music, ranging from punk, R&B to rap and spoken word poetry.
Further into the farm, vendors lined up in a circle and offered self-made zines, written poetry, henna designs and mini thrift shops that displayed clothing, beaded accessories and handmade pieces.
Ruth Camila, a card reader at the festival, uses card readings to get to know people. She began using cards after the COVID-19 pandemic to look for answers during a time of grief, but she said the farm’s location gave her a chance to step away from crowded environments and feel more present in the community around her.
“I think there’s something unique about being a farm that isn’t in the middle of downtown Los Angeles,” Camilia said.
These scenes marked the first Sunburnt Fest, a music and poetry festival organized by Poetry Peace and Pluto’s, two groups that host events spotlighting writers in Los Angeles County.
Poetry Peace focuses on creating spaces for people to express themselves through storytelling, poetry and other forms of art. Pluto’s work with writers on zines and magazines gives writers a place to have their work published and showcased.
Valerie Laguna, a Cal Poly Pomona alumna and event coordinator, helped organize the festival by connecting the Lopez Urban Farm coordinators, volunteers and Pluto’s to make the event in Pomona. She said her goal with the event was to bring creatives together to share their crafts and build community.
“Being creative, I think, feeds the soul for people, whether they are creating themselves or consuming,” Laguna said.
Miz Mehndi, a henna artist, gave guests the opportunity to experience and learn about henna. She explained that henna is a form of temporary body art rather than a tattoo.
The interactions between vendors and guests created spaces for people to learn more about artists’ work and ask questions while experiencing different kinds of art on the farm.
For Paula Macena, the founder and director of Pluto’s, participating in Sunburnt Fest was nostalgic because Pomona was one of the first places that introduced her to the creative scene in Southern California.
After moving from New Jersey to the Redlands, Macena said she’d regularly traveled to Pomona for shows and community events because of it’s creative community.
“I feel like it’s a big, artsy haven,” Macena said. “Like there’s a lot of cool venues. There’s a lot of cool things to do here.”
Macena also valued the farm as a shared space where artists and guests could create together. For more information on upcoming events at Lopez Urban Farm, check out the calendar.
Feature photo courtesy of Richard Velazquez