Beach Life Festival, Redondo Beach

[walterfredo]

Jacket and Trey closing out Sunday. Yes please.

[sillyboob]

One thing about this Festival is that there is very limited parking in the area, and getting Ubers after the show wasn't particularly easy either.  Went in 2021 and the Festival grounds are pretty good, and it's small.  But getting out of there was tough, and we left four songs into the Marley Brothers.  This is in my backyard, but I'm skipping it.  It helps that I'll see MMJ three times a month before.  There are some hotel rooms real close, so if you can snag one of those, or an AirBNB, I hope everyone who goes enjoys it!

[walterfredo]

^im not surprised to hear this regarding parking and Ubers. We booked a room at the Portofino Hotel for this reason. Can't miss Trey and MMJ back to back!

[sillyboob]

^im not surprised to hear this regarding parking and Ubers. We booked a room at the Portofino Hotel for this reason. Can't miss Trey and MMJ back to back!

You're all set then!!  Perfect location for sure. 

[walterfredo]

Looking like we are going to have to skip Beachlife Festival now. Have 2 x Sunday GA+ tix available, these allow you to go in/out of the festival freely throughout the day. We paid $458 total for these ($229 each) and they are now $259 each. Will sell for the cost of the regular GA tix, which are $179/ea. I have the wristbands and will mail them to you priority mail or fedex and will cover shipping charges.

[Zooey]

Still available? I have a friend who might be interested in one.

[walterfredo]

Still available? I have a friend who might be interested in one.

yes!

Edit: sold

[MPP]

I'm at this today.  They just shut it down and evacuated the entire site due to 'high winds'.  At 5:30p, just as ZZ finished and Fleet Foxes were to start, with Trey and Jacket to follow.  Claimed it was just for 'one hour', then would restart.

Billy Gibbons did quip 'someone turn off the fans' during the set, lol.

And now they just cancelled it. Blaming the fire department.  Unreal.

Meanwhile, it's literally breezy. Half the wind that there was at 3p when I got here.  Forecast is for diminishing winds rest of the night.

I'm expecting a refund. 

[walterfredo]

Yeah that shit is nonsense. Feel so bad for all there. We bailed on it last week and am feeling quite "lucky". But yeah that is rough. Friends that were there just texted me saying that there's literally no wind as of like an hour ago.

[MPP]

Yep.  For sure were strong winds earlier - that they let them play through for hours.  But not anything close to 'high winds'.  Maybe 15-18 mph with some higher gusts.

They evacuated on the promise all would restart after an hour or so, because obviously they knew the winds would die down to a breeze. It was accompanied by something like 'the end will be extended'.

Wondering if they tried to get the 9:30 pushed and PD or town said No.  it would have been close to 7:30 before a restart, so two hours lost.

[walterfredo]

Will be very curious to see if they provide refunds or if they just say SOL.

[MPP]

SOL would be 'see our lawsuit" yes?  Lol
But seriously.  I'm contesting it, through my CC company to start if they don't offer some compensation for this flustercluck they created.  $180 wasn't for St Paul, Courtney Barnett and ZZ Top.  Though she was great!  ZZ was very good too.

Going to be hard to explain how they had to shut down right when the main acts were coming on and just before the winds dropped below 15 mph and turned to a breeze by 7:30.  But they deemed it ok to stay open from noon-5:30pm with just as bad if not worse winds the whole time.

Being in a cynical mood, I'm thinking because they had soft Sunday ticket sales, someone quickly figured an insurance payment or town make good for shutting it down early would net more than if they played it out straight.

[bdawg]

@MPP
We're with you, and so were all the people I saw leaving the festival. Winds were dying down by the time they called the show, and forecast was lighter winds for the evening. Made no sense, other than maybe the city told them they couldn't go later than 9:20?
FWIW, I was at Stagecoach two years ago. Winds were easily up to 40 mph and the show went on without a hitch. It's the beach, and it's always windy. If you didn't plan for some stronger gusts, you just didn't plan well.
MMJ needs to play indoors in LA, lol. Last two shows canceled/moved due to weather (though last one at the Bowl was legit).
I wish festivals were a thing of the past. Too much money and uncertainty.
And... Courtney crushed it, as she always does!

[ranyart]

Betsy saw this news pop up on Instagram as it unfolded, and we're super sad for everyone.  Ever since the weather related festival disaster in Indy folks have been super paranoid, so I'm not surprised by what happened but it sure does sound like they went too far.  I hate to say it but I will be shocked if anyone gets any festival money back.  What a bummer...

[MPP]

@bdawg - 'It's the beach, and it's always windy. If you didn't plan for some stronger gusts, you just didn't plan well.'

lol, exactly what I was saying to the promotion crew sitting around defending the decision 'for safety reasons'.  They chose an ocean beach location, it was a fairly common sunny, windy beach day.  They didn't design the setup for that?

ranyart - well, I'm presuming the official cancel statement saying roughly 'give us a few days to assess the consequences of this decision' means they think some compensation may be due. Not sure how it would work, maybe comp me the festival tshirt I bought just before they shut it down, listing bands that never played. If they do offer something, better not be credits for next years festival!

The irony is Jacket not getting to play due to weather. 
Thank god Bonnaroo isn't held in Redondo Beach 😉

[bdawg]

Seems like refunds may be coming. I would have rather had the show, but it'll be good of them to make right on it.
What's the chance of the band doing something special this fall for us So Cal folks? I know there are worse things, but man, we were looking forward to that show!

[ranyart]

I read the city's letter about cancelling the show.  They claim that the high winds that did happen lifted some items off the ground and that they would have had to reinspect everything for safety before letting folks back in, which would have taken about three hours to complete and of course there was not enough time for that so they cancelled.  Lots of noise from the Phish/TAB fans so here's hoping someone finds a way to make this right for everyone involved.

[MPP]

Yeah, well, FD/PD is covering with that stuff. I'm ok with the Festival folks, it's pretty clear it wasn't their call to evacuate, which then guaranteed the cancel. No need to make all of us leave the entire grounds, that was a dumb 'safety' plan.  Wasn't a bomb threat.  They're justifying the fact that once everyone exited, the police and fire 'plans' required them to re-check everything for structural integrity and any explosives/etc that somehow would have been planted while no one was there. Lol

It's ok though, and the festival folks really seem to be trying to make good. They just sent us an email saying all the Kona beer they bought will be part of a Happy Hour they're organizing at a local Hermosa beach bar, tomorrow 6-8.  And some local guy will be playing 'all the Trey and MMJ songs he knows' Very cool of them!

[MMJTX]

Really sucks for those of you that went and missed out on Jacket and others, while i understand wanting your money back and i probably would too, the way things are going for Festivals these days, i would think if they refunded everyone then you could kiss this festival goodbye

[Jack D]

Yeah winds were dying down, and it was a beautiful clear blue sky. Crowd was in stunned disbelief at the evacuation order. As Ranyart outlines- it was the reinspection procedures that would've burned up remaining time, with apparently no flex in curfew. My guess is compensation will be in the form of an earlybird discount on next year's tickets, or some leftover Beach Life 2024 festival merch.

Otherwise the wife and I had a great 2.5 days of festival fun.