The BeachLife Festival is taking over the Beach Cities this weekend. Here’s what you need to know.
Allen Sanford is only a few days away from the BeachLife Festival’s first day in the world, but he beams when he talks about how close it is from launching.
“It’s great, isn’t it? Nobody believed it when we said we wanted to do something like this, and it’s slowly coming together,” Sanford said. “We’re hearing nothing but people saying how stoked they are — people are finally realizing the magnitude of what we’re all about.”
BeachLife, a three-day celebration of surf, sunsets, sand and the beach experience, begins on Friday, May 3, running through Sunday, May 5. Forty-one bands, headlined by Willie Nelson, Bob Weir, and Brian Wilson will take to three stages over the long weekend in Redondo Beach’s Seaside Lagoon and Marina parking lot, which has been completely taken over for the event.
The festival was conceived after Bill Brand won election as Redondo Beach mayor in March 2017 — Sanford reached out to the mayor-elect and was given a “roadmap“ to approval; the rest of the council was then won over that December, with a plan for an event that would give Redondo and Beach Cities residents an event they could call their own — and more importantly, something for which they don’t have to drive to Las Vegas, Coachella or elsewhere in Los Angeles.
In fact, Sanford wants Los Angeles, and the rest of the country, to come to him. The festival’s advertising blitz includes internet ads served across the country, and billboards and ads throughout the county. It’s worked, too: Sanford loves to share that the festival has drawn sales in 37 states, and is expected to bring international attendees from Europe and New Zealand.
In the meantime, the City of Redondo Beach has worked to give the area a shine, repainting curbs and signs and trimming trees. Even businesses along Redondo’s International Boardwalk have worked with sign-makers from butlersigns.uk to install new and updated signage.
“We’re always trying to put our best foot forward with special events — public works is out there cleaning things up, looking at landscape medians, touching up paint, curbs, and striving to ensure everyone is properly oriented,” said Assistant City Manager Mike Witzansky.
Getting there
By itself, BeachLife will take up one of the largest surface parking lots in Redondo Beach’s King Harbor, and Sanford has long said that the festival will encourage attendees to find alternate ways to get themselves to the site, including bicycling, ride-share and shuttles.
Four BeachLife shuttles stops are planned for the event and will operate for free in each of the Beach Cities. Eight parking lots have also been arranged throughout South Redondo.
Popular scooter and bike share businesses like Bird and Lime can’t do business in Redondo — the companies were put under a blanket ban earlier this year, after Bird dropped a “pop up” trial onto the city with no warning.
As of January, “shared mobility services” are banned from being offered for use throughout the city, and the devices are barred from being left on public right-of-ways (including sidewalks) and public property (including most of the harbor).
Instead, bicyclists will be encouraged to use the festival’s “bike valet,” located at Marina Bike Rentals, 505 N. Harbor Drive, just north of the festival grounds.
“What I think BeachLife is doing is finally giving a rally option for everyone to get around. Everyone around here knows how cool Redondo is, and now everyone else is starting to see it,” Sanford said.
Getting around
Sandra Vivas, the General Manager of Shade Hotel, knows that her hotel has already benefited from the BeachLife splash. The hotel’s rates are about $100 higher than their usual average rate, with many of its guests planning to attend the festival.
“People will pay those rates in Manhattan Beach, two miles away, and there’s no reason that they shouldn’t be doing the same in Redondo,” Vivas said. “Redondo is like a hidden, sleepy beach destination…I love it for that, but we want to make sure guests know we have the same amenities and services they expect in Manhattan and Hermosa.”
To that end, Shade will be opening up its rooftop pool throughout the weekend. On Friday, they’re hosting a “Music Festival Weekend Kick-Off Party,” starting at 3 p.m., with live music, drink specials, and complimentary entry. Saturday and Sunday will also feature pool parties, charging a $20 cover fee.
“I think it’s going to be a really cool place and a cool area for people to hang out,” Vivas said.
Craig Barnes, of Marina Bike Rentals, is happy to participate, though he knows his rental business — which will be closed throughout the weekend — is going to take a hit during the event, while he acts as the bike valet spot.
To take in a bit more revenue, he plans to sell small goods — bottled water and bike locks — to people as they go into the show.
His big concern is that the city is only now making strides toward shining Harbor Drive, when he’s spent years worrying about untrimmed trees adjacent to his property.
“All of a sudden, I see City of Redondo trucks, three of them, in front of my shop. They’re painting curbs, riding the trip-and-fall cracks in the concrete, hanging banners,” Barnes said. “After 29 years of paying taxes and hoping to attract locals and outsiders, a concert comes to town and they pull out 10,000 gallons of lipstick — why can’t we have it like that always?”
As Witzansky said, the city is often looking to put its best foot forward, and as such, the city has been working overtime to put the finishing touches on the harbor.
“I think sidewalks, public throughways, streets, bike paths, driveways…we’re going to try to keep it moving. Those kinds of things will be traditionally enforced,” Witzansky said. “But if you find yourself in a comfortable swath of grass at Czuleger Park, out of the way of pedestrian traffic and locations that require mobility…it’ll be a great day to ride a bike.”
Redondo’s police and fire departments are coordinating on the event as well.
“We’re making sure we’ve got unified command; the way emergency response goes, if you work through it all and at the end of the day, everyone packs up, it’s a good day,” said RBFD Division Chief Robert Rappaport.
Police will be handling traffic, as well as providing security on the event. Expect the full complement of RBPD equipment, including its K9 units — drug, bomb, and “vaporwake” dogs, specializing in finding what people want to keep hidden — as well as its drone team, which has been in the air during other public events, including Fourth of July and Super Bowl run festivities.
As traffic changes are concerned, no roads will be closed in the harbor area, but there is one major change: Harbor Drive, south of Beryl Street, will be made one-way for the duration of the festival.
That will allow for those using ride-share options, like Lyft and Uber, to have safer pickup and drop-off zones, akin to the taxi stations at LAX. According to BeachLife representatives at an April presentation before the Redondo Beach City Council, the entire curb-line adjacent to the Harbor Drive bike path, will be used as a rideshare staging area.
Picking up tickets should be painless: The BeachLife Box Office will be across Harbor Drive from the festival, just south of the Crown Plaza hotel.
Once you’re in, the festival will start by 11:20 each day, at three stages spread throughout the Seaside Lagoon and parking lot area. The Hightide main stage, visible from the intersection of Beryl and Harbor, will hold the headliners (Bob Weir on Friday, Brian Wilson on Saturday and Willie Nelson on Sunday) and major acts. The Lowtide and Riptide stages, off the sand inside Seaside Lagoon, will hold other national and local acts.
Food and drinks — including cocktails — will be for sale, but the organizers are asking for common sense for a festival, rather than for Seaside Lagoon: Outside food or drinks, umbrellas, beach blankets, and beach chairs are banned, as are metal water bottles. (E-cigs and vapes, however, are allowed, because you apparently can’t have a music festival in 2019 without them.)
Despite the city’s contract with BeachLife, which calls for two three-day festivals per year, this may be the only BeachLife Festival of 2019.
“We’ve decided to not make a decision until we get feedback after the event,” Sanford said. “We’ll know within a few weeks whether we’re going to do anything in the fall — we thought it really important to get through this one to understand where we excelled and where we need to work on, and how quickly we can turn around. It’d be foolish of us to not look at what we do the first time and what we can learn from.”
It is hoped, he said, that the festival will succeed and return through the next ten years to help growth throughout the rest of the harbor.
“It shows that you can do really creative things and have it be economically feasible as well — most people think ‘economically feasible’ means massive development that nobody likes,” Sanford said. “I hope that BeachLife opens up the community’s eyes to alternative ways to treat the waterfront. This could be world-renowned destination for years to come.”
