A multi-day festival on a Southern California beach has tempted promoters for generations and defeated most of them. Goldenvoice is trying it in Santa Monica: Ocean Way runs September 26-27 on the sand, with the Killers and Olivia Dean at the top of the bill.
Nic Adler, the concert producer behind it, said the obstacle was never the location. "It wasn't something that Santa Monica understood or wanted until recently," he said, describing a city that has one of the most famous stretches of beach on the planet and had not been interested in using it this way.
What changed was civic. The recent World Cup and the coming Olympics, a Third Street Promenade retail corridor that never recovered after the pandemic, and a city council elected to a super-majority in 2024 that started a $60 million Realignment Plan aimed at preparing Santa Monica for mass gatherings. Mayor Caroline Torosis put it directly: "We have been yearning to get back a big music festival on our beach."
The bill is broad rather than scene-specific, which is a break from Goldenvoice's usual approach with its smaller events. Sublime is the most literal beach booking on the planet; Jack White and the Killers bring windows-down rock; Khruangbin hands off to Olivia Dean around sunset. The name comes from Ocean Way, the recording studio Allen Sides founded in a Santa Monica garage in the early 1970s before it moved to Hollywood, where Michael Jackson's Thriller and Green Day's American Idiot were tracked.
Tickets run from $249 for a single day up to $2,250 for a full weekend at the Proper Beach Club, pricing it alongside Goldenvoice's bigger events rather than a local fixture. And there is no dedicated on-site parking at all: the site sits steps from the Metro E Line, and organisers are pushing bikes, shuttles and transit instead.
The context is not all encouraging. Ocean Way arrives after the collapse of the LA Jazz Festival, which planned a 40,000-capacity event on Dockweiler Beach and fell apart under permit and financial pressure. Adler says the plan is not for one year only. The Killers have been in our pages this summer through Brandon Flowers' solo work, from his country album Thrasher to his comments about quitting music. Confirmed bills are on the festival tracker, and more rock coverage is on the genre hub.
The facts
- Ocean Way runs September 26-27 on the beach in Santa Monica.
- The Killers and Olivia Dean headline for Goldenvoice.
- Jack White, Khruangbin and Sublime are also booked.
- Tickets run from $249 a day to $2,250 for the full weekend.
- There is no dedicated on-site parking.
- Santa Monica began a $60 million Realignment Plan after its 2024 election.
- The name comes from the Ocean Way recording studio founded by Allen Sides.
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