By Kayla Kinsey
Staff Writer
Beach Life Festival was held in Redondo Beach from Sept. 10-12, attracting 50 bands and selling approximately 9,000 tickets each day, making it the largest live music festival in Southern California, according to Spectrum News.
Bands such as Cage The Elephant, Jane’s Addiction, Fitz and the Tantrums, and Counting Crows played at the festival. This year’s feature performance was the Melody Makers band in their only Southern California appearance of 2021. The band is composed of Ziggy Marley and Stephen Marley, who played Bob Marley songs on stage in honor of their father’s 75th birthday.
“The inspiration [behind the festival] was to bring amazing music to the South Bay Community and create a celebration of music, art and culture,” said Sandy McGee, member of the customer relations for Beach Life.
To maintain safety at the event, proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test from less than 72 hours before was required. There were over 60 different hand-washing stations and sanitizing stations festival-wide.
“For people to come together in an event like this seems like a big step that the world is moving in a better direction and that some sense of normalcy is returning,” said Costa sophomore Sabrina Dela Barre. “It was a good feeling to be a part of a group of people or a community that I could connect to and relate to in a lot of ways because of how much routines have changed in the past year because of Covid.”
The L.A. Kings donated $60,000 to local charities associated with Beach Life Festival. A percentage of ticket sales was contributed to several local charities, including Surfrider Foundation, Heal the Bay, Life Rolls On, Redondo Beach Police Foundation, Redondo Beach Education Foundation and Walk With Sally. Some of the sponsors of the event included Subaru Pacific, Chase, Jack Daniels, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, Kinecta, Dogfish Head, Chevron, Mammoth Mountain, and Frontier.
“It was the best concert I have ever been to because I made so many friends with similar interests and got to interact with my community for the first time in a while,” said Dela Barre.
Beach Life Festival was created in 2019 by Allen Sanford and his partner Rob Lissner. Sanford is an entrepreneur who owned Saint Rocke, a live music venue in Hermosa Beach, and is the founder of the Hermosa Beach Summer Concerts. Sanford and his partner Lissner also run Lifelist, a live streaming platform that broadcasts events to a larger audience.
“It was awesome that the festival was right here in the South Bay,” said Costa senior Chaz Wedbush.
The festival also paid homage to its 2020 lineup, which was abandoned due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year’s performances included the likes of the Steve Miller Band, Counting Crows, Ziggy and Stephen Marley, Grace Vanderwaal, and Fitz and the Tantrums. Despite the COVID-19 protocols in place, Dela Barre says, this year’s festival was a substantial improvement from the previous year.
“I got to see live performances in person, which was probably one of the best experiences I have ever had,” said Dela Barre.
The festival also featured booths for food and drinks and was held adjacent to the beach. However, according to Wedbush, the music was what made the event great one.
“The best part of the festival for me was seeing my favorite band, Cage the Elephant. It was really nice to actually be able to go to something like this again,” said Wedbush.
Leave a Reply