Echo Park Lotusless Festival

I took a walk around Echo Park, the site of the annual Lotus Festival. Every year there is a boat race, food and various cultural entertainment, as well as art and photo contest. Visitors from all over southern California make the trip to see the lotus bloom during this time of the year. It has been a couple of years since I attended the festival. The last time I went, the lotus had a late blossom. While it was disappointing, at least there was lotus to see. When I went there for a preview this morning, there was no lotus at all. What I saw was a park maintenance worker fishing out sludge and floating garbage out of the water. I asked him about happened to the lotus, and he told me that the water had been contaminated. I thought to myself, "how could they have a lotus festival without lotus?" It's like having a birthday party for someone who's dead. Nonetheless, it's still a nice place to take a stroll or nap under a shade. I snapped off these couple of shots while I was there.