Happy 10th, Chinatown Summer Nights

If the flavor of early summer is kind of a tangy lemon-vanilla, and the scent is something from the just-blooming jasmine family, then what is its hue?

You could say this time of year is jacaranda purple, or ocean blue, or even June Gloom gray.

But some celebration-ready people might claim that neon is late spring's snazziest color, and while neon itself isn't actually a color, its bright-warm vibe and light-up-the-night oomph fits this part of the calendar to a terrific T.

Case in point? It adds illumination, beauty, and pizzazz to Chinatown Summer Nights, the annual run of DJ'd-up fun times in the historic Chinatown Central Plaza.

If you know this neon scene, then you know it pops up on select Saturday nights through the late spring and summer, that KCRW jumps into the musical fun with a host of DJs, and there are food trucks, too, to keep the energy strong among the revelers.

And there's plenty for revelers to spend that energy on come Saturday evening, June 8, from dancing near the LA Weekly Live Music Stage to the art workshops to browsing at the Craft & Vintage Market.

This is the first night in the 2019 series, with a date to come in July and one in August, too.

Entry is free, so the only thing you'll need to spend, beyond your upbeat energy, is money at the beer garden, the food trucks, the local shops, the nearby eateries, and such.

One final and festive hurrah? This is the 10th anniversary for the event, which is co-presented by LA Chinatown and KCRW 89.9 FM.

So is neon the official hue of this time of year? Well, it isn't a hue at all, but its singular, highly chromatic glow always seems to rock a celebratory feel.

Maybe we can call neon the official glow of late springtime, and summer, too?

Let's try that, and glow on at the 10th anniversary of this terrific warm-weather to-do.