Hidden Gems: Meet Rachel Wilkerson and Marisa Hirtzel Cahoots of Cahoots Event

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rachel Wilkerson and Marisa Hirtzel Cahoots. They and their team shared their story with us below:

Marisa & Rachel are kindred spirits who share a passion for creating events that showcase their community. After being introduced at a night at The Sardine, they quickly formed a friendship that has now spawned the Cahoots Event Production Agency. 

They first began hosting a Holiday Bizarre in 2021 at The Sardine (same place they met!) with over 30 local vendors. From there the ideas just kept flowing. Since then, they have hosted and supported all kinds of events, like the Channel Street Skatepark Grand Opening, a Valentine’s Day pop-up restaurant, and a surf movie premiere event. 

Combining Marisa’s marketing expertise and Rachel’s love of design, they are a powerhouse of creative production knowledge. When they aren’t brainstorming their next event, you can find them enjoying the San Pedro coastline, shopping local or hunting down their next favorite vintage find. 

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The joy and struggle is that this is a labor of love. We do these events because we are passionate about supporting the creative community around us. However, they are very labor intensive, costly, and difficult to make any profit. If we could do this work full time, we would, but we still gotta pay the bills with our day jobs! 

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Cahoots Event?
Our passion is creating events that highlight talented people and businesses in and around the San Pedro area. 

There are no other organization quite like us in San Pedro. We are the only event production group that is all about featuring our community. We don’t sell any products, we’re all about how can we can pitch in to help others. That could be anything from featuring new artists on our Instagram, promoting and attending other local events, making connections for other businesses, consulting others on other events, fundraising for local organizations, supporting a new restaurant or really anything that helps highlight the city we love. 

The relationships we have build with amazing creatives and business owners across town. 

Follow us on Instagram if you want to get to know more of the interesting things, events and people in San Pedro. 

Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc.?
We love the gals at Hello San Pedro. They cover all kinds of helpful topics and interesting characters around town. https://www.instagram.com/hellosppodcast/ 

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/hellosanpedro 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.cahootsevents.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cahootsevents/

Image Credits
Ronnie Sandoval
Anthony Renna