Exploring a Brand New Festival
Yesterday marked the beginning of the BeachLife Festival, LA’s first ever oceanfront music festival on the coast of Redondo Beach, CA. Your Blank News team took the day to explore this brand new festival and its many offerings.
Because Friday generally marks the carpocolypse of all traffic jams around Los Angeles, we too arrived at the festival a bit later than anticipated. But thanks to BeachLife’s all-day-all-acts live-stream, we were able to tune in to the earlier performances via BeachLife’s website. What a treat! Sitting in traffic has never been more entertaining. (Fear not, we didn’t watch the video, just listened to the live performances. Safety first!) This also means that you can watch this entire festival all weekend from the comforts of your couch at home! To do so, just visit: https://beachlifefestival.com/live/
Once at the festival grounds, finding your way around is quite easy. The festival features three stages, an Artsy Village, a large craft beer bar, Wine Town, several local food vendors and bars and a very unique Sidestage: a 50-seat pop-up restaurant set up right next to the main stage. Unfortunately, the Sidestage is not open for exploration for those not holding a reservation, but from afar it looked like a pretty snazzy place – and busy, too.
VIP guests and Captain’s Pass holders have the privilege to enjoy dedicated festival entrances, viewing areas and bars. Several vendors throughout the festival grounds are giving away goodies. For example the Chandon Champagne booth offers “spin-the-wheel” opportunities to win prizes such as T-shirts, sunglasses, tote bags, lip balm, etc. And, perhaps most importantly, Chandon offers a complimentary happy hour every day from 5-6 PM at their booth. Bubbles!!!!
Our favorite performance of the day was Slightly Stoopid. With the sky’s changing colors in the background and palm trees dancing in the wind behind the stage, jumping around in the sand to this fun jam band couldn’t have felt any more liberating. In true Los Angeles fashion, the set surprised with several guest appearances, including the legend Bob Weir (who played the closing set Friday evening) and Charley Tuna of Jurassic 5.
We cannot wait to return for more fun and tunes on Saturday and Sunday. Traffic and parking are challenging. BeachLife offers a shuttle service connecting some of the further out parking lots with the festival grounds. However, if you plan to attend this weekend, we strongly encourage using a ride share service, such as Lyft. It’s your safest option anyway, if you plan to enjoy the many delicious craft brews or wines. Have fun! See you there…or on the live stream.
