Sanford’s BeachLife festival moved to May
The BeachLife Festival, Allen Sanford’s effort to bring a music, art and food festival to the Redondo Beach waterfront, will be postponed by seven months to May 2019, rather than the festival’s originally-planned Fall 2018 launch.
“It’s much better to wait and plan this thing correctly than to rush a festival together,” Sanford, a local entrepreneur, and promoter, said on Monday. “If anything, this is us being cautious and conservative.”
The date change comes in accordance with amendments to the existing contract that is scheduled to be finalized at a forthcoming Redondo Beach City Council meeting, planned for Sept. 4.
Neither Redondo Beach city staff nor Sanford would go into deep detail of the changes being made to the contract, though the amendments will be made public prior to the Sept. 4 meeting.
“The city and myself are going into this with a long-term partnership perspective,” Sanford said. “We want each other to be comfortable.”
“Everything is a go. It’s just that looking at spring, and the availability of acts, made more sense,” Redondo Beach Assistant City Manager Mike Witzansky said, adding that Sanford’s home life recently got a bit busier as well.
“Literally, it’s a simple ‘Allen had a baby, there’s a lot going on,’” Sanford said with a laugh. “October 2018 didn’t leave a lot of lead time, and my child was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
The amended contract, Witzansky said, will describe terms to ensure the calendaring of the festival works with the new spring start. It will also place alternative venues within the city should the planned location, in the Seaside Lagoon parking lot, become unavailable.
“We think Redondo is a huge growth area and we love it there,” Sanford said. “We just need to cross some t’s and dot some i’s.”
Sanford is perhaps best known as a force behind Hermosa music venue Saint Rocke and the last 10 years of the Hermosa Summer Concert Series, among other music and restaurant ventures.
BeachLife won unanimous approval among Redondo’s City Council last December and is envisioned as a festival for Beach Cities locals.
Though Redondo Mayor Bill Brand teased Steve Miller Band as a potential act earlier this year, Sanford kept his hand closer to the vest, adding that he’ll have plenty to announce in October.