Two chill nights of music, food and kick-back, reggae-heavy vibes are coming to the sand this weekend with the debut of BeachLife Nights, a scaled-down version of the popular annual BeachLife Festival.
“It’s got all the goodness of BeachLife without the scale,” said Allen Sanford, founder of the new mini music festival which takes place Oct. 18-19 in Redondo Beach’s Seaside Lagoon.
With four musical acts on the lineup each day, including headliners Michael Franti & Spearhead on night one and Iration on night two, the event is expected to attract up to 4,000 people over the weekend, which is far less than the approximately 33,000 people who attended the three-day BeachLife Festival to see more than 40 acts perform on multiple stages in May.
“We’ve been playing with this idea of doing more of a concert setting but still providing a cool vibe and community around the concert and not just putting a stage up,” Sanford said of the new event.
BeachLife Nights will feature performances on one stage right on the sand with a lineup that includes sets by The Rookies, The English Beat and Soja on Friday and Anuhea, Donavon Frankenreiter and Fortunate Youth on Saturday plus celebrity chef Curtis Stone hosting a VIP barbecue behind the event’s main stage both days. And unlike the larger festival, for this event people can even bring beach chairs to set up on the sand.
“It’s just going to be good energy, we’re dipping more into the reggae scene, but the unifying factor is really good vibes,” Sanford said. “It’s more of a hang at the beach than a festival setting.”
For Hermosa Beach-born reggae fusion act Fortunate Youth, which got its start playing backyard parties in the beachside community, BeachLife Nights will feel like a throwback to those early days, said the band’s lead singer Dan Kelly.
“I think it’s wonderful that they’re providing this more intimate setting,” he said. “It’s nice that they’re bringing this really local experience and that we get a chance to play in our backyard and the community where we’re from,” Kelly added.
The band, which formed after the members started jamming at a birthday party in June 2009, is about to start recording a new album and heading out on a new world tour, so the Redondo Beach show will be their only local show planned so far for a while.
“We’re going to be playing some beautiful sounds of joy basically summed up with an amazing soulful voice that I possess and carry,” Kelly said with a laugh.
BeachLife Nights
When: 4-10 p.m. Oct. 18-19
Where: 200 Portofino Way, Redondo Beach
Tickets: VIP tickets, which cost $259 each day and include a food and beverage tasting session from 4 to 6 p.m. with Stone, access to the Backstage VIP Lounge, a VIP front row viewing area and more. General admission tickets for each day are $75.
Information: beachlifenights.com
