Starting next year, you won't have to drive to the desert to get your music festival fix.
As Los Angeles prepares for a once-in-a-generation run of global sports spectacles, Santa Monica is embracing its moment in the spotlight with a new annual music festival. Approved this week by City Council, the festival is part of a broader realignment plan to activate the Pier, the beach and downtown—but the event is shaping up to be the headline act.
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Set to debut in the fall of 2026, the beachfront festival will take place adjacent to the Santa Monica Pier on the sand, transforming one of Southern California’s most iconic backdrops into a large-scale concert venue. Produced by Goldenvoice, the powerhouse behind Coachella and other major festivals, the inaugural event is envisioned as a single-day experience hosting an estimated 30,000 to 35,000 attendees. Plans call for a lineup of 12 to 15 artists, alongside curated food and drink offerings, merchandise, art installations and branded activations, all designed to feel rooted in Santa Monica rather than dropped in from elsewhere.
City officials and Goldenvoice emphasized that the music event will be tailored to the city, with an eye toward drawing local residents as well as visitors, and driving business to nearby hotels, restaurants and shops before and during the event. The plan is for the festival to return in the fall of 2027 and 2028, establishing a new annual cultural destination on the coast.
The timing is strategic. The festival arrives amid a wave of global attention towards the region, with the FIFA World Cup landing in Los Angeles in summer 2026, the Super Bowl following in 2027 and the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2028. The music festival sits within a broader lineup of activations meant to reintroduce Santa Monica as a destination for major gatherings. Those plans include a World Cup fan club on the Pier, an ESPN fan festival in 2027 and hospitality and broadcast hubs for the Olympics and Paralympics in 2028. That's when the Annenberg Community Beach House is slated to become Club France, the French National Olympic and Sport Committee's official hospitality hub for French athletes, officials, fans and media, mixing live event viewing with cultural programming.
Crucially, the city says the events will be privately funded, with producers paying for property use, services and security, and no subsidies coming from Santa Monica. The focus, officials say, is on free or low-cost public access where possible, meaningful community benefits and long-term economic impact.
“The next few years are a defining opportunity to showcase Santa Monica at its best, from our beach and Pier to the heart of our downtown along our iconic coastline,” said mayor Caroline Torosis in an official statement. “This is exactly what our realignment plan was designed to do. We are ushering in Santa Monica’s Renaissance by delivering results, revitalizing our core and setting the city up for its next chapter. Our best days are ahead.”