BeachLife Festival Info & Impacts

By Michael Hixson
March 27, 2019 as seen in The Beach Reporter

 

More than 12,000 people are estimated to attend each day of the three-day inaugural BeachLife Festival May 3-5 in Redondo Beach to see music legends Brian Wilson, Willie Nelson and Bob Weir.

The broad scope of the festival is unlike anything ever attempted in the South Bay.

How are organizers planning to pull off the massive undertaking that includes 40 acts on three stages, gourmet chefs, VIP areas, a 52-tap local craft brewery, curated wine village, several food trucks and 20 food vendors from around Los Angeles?

BeachLife co-founder Allen Sanford admits the festival will bring in extra traffic to the beach town … and a lot of people. But, he said, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

“That’s extra business; that’s people enjoying this fantastic piece of land that Redondo Beach has to offer,” Sanford said. “As a festival and as a company we’re 100 percent committed to listening to the residents and community and mitigating as much of the concerns as we can.”

The festival will be spread across 325,000 square feet at Redondo Beach’s King Harbor and Seaside Lagoon area and adjacent parking lots.

Sanford added organizers have been carefully planning the event “to really resonate with the fabric of the community.”

Redondo Beach Mayor Bill Brand said his main concerns about BeachLife—public safety, noise and traffic—have been addressed by Sanford in conjunction with city officials, police and fire.

“We’ll see what happens,” said Brand. “But I have a lot of confidence in our staff in the ability to make sure the residents are safe, the visitors are safe and it’s not a big disturbance.”

Redondo Beach City Council will take up an item on Tuesday, April 2 to discuss festival logistics and what the community can expect, according to Brand.

Shuttles and parking

From the early planning of BeachLife, Sanford said they focused on transporting concert-goers to and from the festival, parking and accommodating guests on the festival grounds.

Because, as Sanford puts it “there really is no perfect solution from a traffic perspective,” he is relying on community outreach, including meeting nearby HOA’s and other groups.

Parking lots adjacent to the festival will be open, but it will be first-come, first-served, said Sanford, who added that alternative transportation is key. Those measures include;

• A bike valet for 3,000 bicycles
• A skateboard valet
• Shuttle services from nearby cities in Palos Verdes and Hermosa Beach
• A large rideshare campaign with Uber.

“We’ve gone out a quarter to half mile radius of the festival event and we secured parking lots all over the place,” Sanford said. “Some are private some are public, some are utility parking lots, we are basically are going to map those parking lots to ticket purchasers.”

Sanford said they have worked closely with the city when it comes to basic utilities including water, power and sanitation. There will be free hydration stations and canteens for sale but, to reduce plastic waste, no plastic water bottles. Areas for shade will be set up and a cleaning crew will come in at the end of each day’s events.

A beach clean-up is also planned in conjunction with the Surfrider Foundation, said Sanford.

Public safety

To ensure safety of the large crowd, Sanford is hiring more than 100 private security staff, which will work closely with the Redondo Beach Police Department.

Redondo Beach Police Chief Keith Kauffman said collaboration with private security was a caveat during the planning for the festival. Kauffman said he was approached early, before BeachLife was a reality. He was skeptical, he said, before his initial conversation with Sanford.

“Once I set down with him, I can tell that (Sanford) was a pro,” said Kauffman. “He seemed to be on the same page as I was about public safety.”

Kauffman said the police department has been an integral part of the planning.

“They keep us very informed,” Kauffman said. “As soon as they figure out a certain plan or a certain part of the logistics, they’ll let us know, so we can adapt what we’re doing from a security standpoint. He’s done absolute everything we’ve asked, so we couldn’t be happier…. we don’t feel rushed. It gives us time now to start thinking about a lot of contingencies and putting plans in place for everything.”

Kauffman said they will deploy the appropriate amount of personnel for a safe event while policing the rest of the city.

“We can’t drop everything, we’re doing just to do a festival,” he said.

The police department will employ special teams and tools, according to Kauffman, including bomb detention canines, its drone program and a marine enforcement unit.

“If we didn’t have all these things, this would be a tough event to handle,” Kauffman said. “But I’m sure we’re still going to learn from it. It’s the first one, but we feel really good about what we have in place.”

An event like this means more personnel and overtime, but according to Kauffman, the promoter will be covering the cost.

The added security isn’t intended to deter good times, however.

“This isn’t in your face here to reprimand you security, this is we want you to have a good time and protect you and make sure everybody is safe and gets home safe security,” Sanford said. “I really applaud the city of Redondo Beach and Chief Kauffman for being absolutely forward thinking with how they are strategizing this plan.”

Noise remediation

In addition to traffic, parking and safety, neighbors are also concerned about noise from the live bands and the crowds.

Sanford said it’s impossible to eliminate noise, but organizers will try to mitigate it.

The headliners will start early in the evening, so their sets are expected to end around 9 p.m., Sanford said.

A decibel gate at the east side of the festival will constantly test the noise level coming from the live music. The speakers use low-dispersion technology to narrowly focus the sound at the audience, and not surrounding areas.

The three concert stages are all strategically pointed away from nearby residences to minimize noise, according to Sanford.

The main Hightide Stage, located in the parking lot next to Ruby’s Diner, creates a “bowl-like atmosphere” according to Sanford. It will be covered in AstroTurf. Organizers had originally considered covering the lot with sand, but decided clean up would be too difficult.

The second Lowtide Stage is located on the sand inside the Seaside Lagoon gates. Entertainment at the Hightide Stage and the Lowtide Stage will be staggered so bands are not “playing atop each other,” according to Sanford.

The third Riptide Stage is located in the Craft Beer Village, on the southern end of the parking lot.

“The idea here is that we’re providing different environments for people to hang out and if they don’t like who’s on at (one stage), they can go (to another) stage,” Sanford said. “When the main stage is playing, we have the whole craft food area and the whole seaside area people can hang out in. We wanted to give people the opportunity to not have to choose between the big bands.”

Also, Sanford said this lets attendees take a break from live music while they’re eating or drinking.

Economic impact

While admitting there are bound to be short-lived impacts, Sanford predicts BeachLife will be a boon for local businesses and will put Redondo Beach on the map as a tourist attraction.

“I’ve been there a hundred times in the last three months,” Sanford said of the King Harbor area.

“It’s a ghost town, it’s is an absolute ghost town,” Sanford said. “You have a lot of businesses that are suffering, that don’t have a lot of traffic, some businesses I’ve learned don’t even have the internet, which I can’t even fathom in this day and age.”

Some hotels are nearly sold out already, according to Sanford, including the Crowne Plaza, which has been a partner since BeachLife was first announced in December. An economic impact report will be released following the festival, he said.

BeachLife’s live streaming of its concerts could be seen by millions around the globe. The word is already getting around, people from around 30 states have already bought tickets, according to Sanford.

“The individual that’s in North Carolina that didn’t come, but watches the Violent Femmes or Brian Wilson live, now has Redondo Beach baked in their head… they saw something really cool there,” Sanford said. “So the next time they decide to come to LA and they’re wondering where to go, they saw this beautiful beach environment, bands and fun, great culture that might sway them to come down to Redondo Beach… it puts Redondo Beach on the board as a great tourist attraction.”

Mayor Brand, who said generally the festival will be a plus, agreed that BeachLife could wind up showcasing the waterfront and invigorating the community.

“The promoter is covering all the costs, and paying its rental fee,” Brand said. “I think it will bring business to Redondo Beach for those three days and have a spill over for the rest of the summer.”