Hurricane damage has canceled Santa Monica’s debut Ocean Way festival

We were excited to see a large-scale concert return to the Santa Monica beachfront, but it looks like we’ll have to wait a bit longer: Ocean Way, the two-day music festival from the same folks as Coachella, has been canceled.

Ocean Way was just around the corner, set to hit the sand southeast of the Santa Monica Pier on September 26 and 27, but an email from AXS that went out to ticket holders on Friday afternoon announced that the event had been canceled as a result of recent storm-related erosion on the beach.

“Due to the impacts of Hurricane Marie, the City of Santa Monica has canceled the inaugural Ocean Way Festival,” the message that we received reads. “Storm surf and runoff has caused significant beach erosion and the festival can no longer be safely held as planned.”

The statement also notes that plans are underway to make the fest happen in 2027 (this year’s debut would’ve included the Killers, Jack White, Olivia Dean and Khruangbin). If you already purchased tickets, which started at $399 for a two-day pass or $229 for a single-day, you should automatically receive a refund within the next five to seven business days.

The news comes after Hurricane Marie, an offshore storm southwest of the Baja California Peninsula, pummeled Southern California shorelines last weekend, sending wild waves breaking along the coast in Malibu and Long Beach and battering seawalls in Laguna Beach. Santa Monica, on the other hand looks mostly fine, so of course commenters on the Instagram post above have decided, without evidence, that ticket sales are the real culprit.

But the City of Santa Monica has offered some concrete details behind their decision. The sand south of the pier was stripped, which would have required moving the safe shoreline setback for the fest 96 feet inland. And the southern boundary would have needed to move 500 feet north to account for runoff from the Pico-Kenter Storm Drain outfall. After the city evaluated the site and looked at the extended forecast, it decided that there was not enough usable beach to safely accommodate the festival infrastructure and attendees.

Ocean Way was first teased late last year as a 30,000-to-35,000-attendee fest from Goldenvoice, and its lineup was finally announced only two months ago. The two-day, mostly-chill-vibes lineup would’ve set up two stages on the beach and opted to forgo any on-site parking in favor of a transit-friendly strategy.