TOP MOMENTS FROM BEACHLIFE
Memories: Festival’s return after year’s hiatus lives up to the anticipation
The South Bay waited for this past weekend for more than a year.
The BeachLife Festival was more than a weekend of music. It was weekend of returning to somewhat normal during the ongoing pandemic. It was a weekend when people could dig their toes in the sand, dance, hang out with friends and remember the heyday of their favorite bands.
After being canceled in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, BeachLife returned for its sophomore year at Redondo Beach’s Seaside Lagoon Friday-Sunday with dozens of acts, including Los Angeles’ Jane’s Addiction, Cage the Elephant, Counting Crows and Ziggy Marley and Stephen Marley, the latter of
whom performed the songs of their late father Bob Marley to close out the festival Sunday night.
Here’s what we’ll remember from the second edition of the BeachLife festival:
1
COVID-19 wasn’t a headliner
The coronavirus pandemic is ongoing, but for better or for worse at the BeachLife Festival it seemed as if there never was a deadly virus floating in the air. Proof of vaccination or a negative coronavirus test was required for entry to the festival, which was under the threshold of 10,000 people and didn’t require masks under L.A. County guidelines. The result was very few masked people in sight, with the clear majority of the crowd sporting big smiles rather than virus blocking coverings. They stood shoulder to shoulder in front of stages, mingled closely and chatted it up at bars and lined up right next to each other at food booths. There were even several handshakes rather than fist-bumps spotted throughout the weekend.
2
A musical time capsule BeachLife isn’t the festival to go to discover the next big thing, it’s the festival to remember how great your music was and how you used to love to dance. There were plenty of nostalgic danceable moments thanks to bands such as the English Beat on Saturday playing hits including “Save it for Later” and “Mirror in the Bathroom.” And while “Tenderness” is technically a General Public song, it was the crowd favorite that turned the sand in front of the Lowtide stage into a beach disco. Men at Work then picked up the dance torch later in the day as they saved their biggest hits like “Who can it be now?” for the final part of their set, and yes, whether people had rhythm or not, the older crowd was getting down just like they used to back in the day.
3
Not a secret Speakeasy
This year marked the debut of the Speakeasy Stage, where punk rockers and signing surfers and skaters unplugged their guitars and performed acoustic sets. The set up was quite a surprise because it didn’t look like a typical festival stage, but rather a beachside coffee shop with some big names performing on an open mic night.
The small stage was set up under a wood structure that felt like an oversized surf shack. In front of the stage there was patio furniture with cushions where people relaxed and listened to acts like Trever Keith of Face to Face on Friday.
However, by Saturday the word about the stage was out and the crowd spilled out of the hut and into the festival grounds by the time Pennywise frontman and stage curator Jim Lindberg performed.
4
Relaxation destination
The BeachLife Festival bills itself as a celebration of the laid-back beach lifestyle, and it’s serious about relaxation. It was hard not to find a place to chill since there were plenty of patio chairs all over the place, plus beach chairs under umbrellas in the sand. And for the pro-level chillers, there was a spot with a handful of hammocks set up.
5
No tickets? No problem
The festival also bills itself as a festival for the neighborhood, and the neighbors came out in the thousands for the three-day event. And while BeachLife was sold out, some people didn’t even need tickets to enjoy the show. A couple of dozen people simply stood in front of the fences along the streets lining the festival and listened to the music coming from the main stage. Some even set up beach chairs on the sidewalk while a few in the nearby residential buildings just went out to their balconies and got a bird’s-eye view of the concert.