Long Beach resident Josh Fischel, 47, who co-organized the Music Tastes Good festival, died just days after the event, which took place the last weekend in September.
Local media reported that Fischel died at a hospital of liver complications, according to his close friend and business partner, Jon Halperin, who said Fischel saw the music festival to the end.
Halperin said Fischel woke up early Monday morning in pain, then his wife rushed him to the hospital, where he remained in an induced coma until early morning on Thursday, Sept. 29.
Last Monday, the Downtown Long Beach Associates, which covers the area where the Music Tastes Good festival took place, released an open letter to Fischel in its newsletter.
“The music just died a little in Long Beach, Joshua,” the letter states. “That’s deeply ironic considering…you brought more music to this city than arguably anyone previously had in quite some time.
Then again, you were always one of those spirits for which music was made— one of those rare creatures that exuded the chords and melodies that make life less burdensome, less cynical.”
In the letter, DLBA goes on to describe part of its professional relationship with Fischel.
“Naturally, when we saw you create our first Live After 5 show, shoved into the underbelly of the Federal Bar in DTLB, we were in awe,” the letter states. “And for every second Thursday after that, month after month, our routine soon required to continually remind ourselves how lucky we were to be working together with such an astounding Artist. And we mean Artist with the full gravity of the word. Artist with a Capital A.”
