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Fans gathered for DEVO’s performance during sunset on May 4 | Photo credit: Fabien Castro/BeachLife Festival
More than 33,000 fans attended the 5th annual BEACHLIFE FESTIVAL over the past weekend (May 3-5) alongside the waterfront in Redondo Beach, CA. The premier live music, art, and culinary event featured memorable performances from Sting, Incubus, DEVO, ZZ Top, Seal, Dirty Heads, Local Natives, Santigold, Sugar Ray, Courtney Barnett, and Steel Pulse among an eclectic group of top talent spanning rock, indie, pop, jam, reggae and more. Sudden dangerous winds recorded up to peak gusts of 51 mph forced an early festival closure on Sunday evening. Although My Morning Jacket, Trey Anastasio + Classic Tab and Fleet Foxes were unable to complete their scheduled performances, all fans, artists, vendors and crew were evacuated safely without incident and without any infrastructure failure.
The festival, equally as devastated as fans, issued the following statement: “It is with great sadness that we must cancel our programming at BeachLife this Sunday evening due to a serious wind event that put the general public at risk. While we take extraordinary measures to keep our fans, staff and artists safe, and while absolutely none of our engineered structures or systems failed, winds quickly reached very dangerous speeds and we put safety first. Alongside the Redondo Beach Police and Fire Department Chiefs, our Ownership made a collective decision that to continue would be unsafe and put people’s lives at risk. Although analyzed at that time, reopening was deemed not possible by City Officials. In our Community, BeachLife stays committed above all to put the safety of our patrons, artists, vendors, and fans first. In the coming days, we will be unwinding the collateral consequences of this decision, and we ask for your support and patience while we do so.”
The decision was not easy but one made by Redondo Beach Public Safety Officials–Redondo Beach Fire Department (RBFD) and Redondo Beach Police Department (RBPD)–in agreement with festival organizers. Following an initial one hour evacuation, given the broad spectrum of threats and complexities required to re-open the venue, the decision was made to cancel the remaining three hours of the show. RB Fire Chief Patrick Butler stated, “Once the property was fully evacuated it would have required a full fire safety inspection including structural engineers to check for signs of stress fatigue on the stage before we could even consider allowing the public to return – it was too much risk to reopen for less than 3 hours.” The city’s full press release is available here.
Although the final DAOU SideStage dinner service did not occur Sunday evening due to the evacuation, on Monday the festival was able to donate the remaining food to the local Redondo Beach Salvation Army for use with their “Meals On Wheels” program and children’s activities. In all, more than 600 pounds of chicken, pork, lobster, and fresh produce was donated.
On Friday, May 3, Saturday, May 4, and the majority of Sunday, May 5, fans took in all that BeachLife has to offer. Quickly establishing a reputation for combining the best of Southern California’s idyllic culture into a one-of-a-kind immersive experience, the festival also featured wide-ranging food and drink offerings from acclaimed chefs and local breweries, unique on-stage dining experiences, art installations and onsite activations highlighting various brand-focused fan engagements, giveaways, photo moments, and sustainable initiatives, as well as boutique shopping, games and interactive experiences.
The music was featured on four stages: the Subaru Pacific HighTide Stage, the Gelato Water LowTide Stage, Tito’s RipTide Stage and the SpeakEasy Stage presented by Grillo’s Pickles and curated by Pennywise frontman Jim Lindberg, which provided intimate and stripped-down acoustic performances from an eclectic array of artists from the rock, singer/songwriter, surf, punk, and reggae rock genres. With an eclectic lineup spanning decades there was something for everyone. Legends such as Sting, who wowed the packed crowd performing songs from both his iconic solo material as well as The Police catalog, SoCal rock icons Incubus, New Wave stalwarts DEVO, classic rock greats ZZ Top, reggae pioneers Steel Pulse, Latin music royalty Tito Puente Jr, and BeachLife favorites Sugar Ray kept the party going throughout the weekend. BeachLife also showcased several exciting emerging young talents such as Jordana, Abraham Alexander, Saxon Weiss, Grace McKagan and Cydeways, among others.
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