Ocean Way is going away, at least until next year. It was to be Goldenvoice’s inaugural Ocean Way Festival, in Santa Monica on the beach coming up this Sept. 26-27, but it has been cancelled, with city officials saying the culprit is erosion along the shore caused by recent hurricane-level forces off the coast.
A statement from the city of Santa Monica stated that the festival “has been canceled after storm surf generated by Hurricane Marie and runoff from a storm drain outfall eroded a large portion of the festival site over Labor Day weekend. The beach can no longer safely accommodate the festival production and audience capacity, and with construction and load-in set to begin next week, the city determined that cancellation was the only responsible option. Plans are already underway to bring the Ocean Way Festival back to Santa Monica in 2027.” The two-day festival was hoping to draw up to 45,000 fans to the beach each day, but fans will have to wait at least another year to hit the sand and see the shows. Single-day passes were being sold along with two-day entry, and the lineup seemed designed to possibly draw a somewhat different audience each day, with rock acts like the Killers, Jack White and Sublime topping the bill on Saturday.
If you bought passes, the statement sent out to ticketholders said that refunds, which had been sold in a range from $249 to $2,250, will be processed automatically in the next 5-7 business days, so you won’t have to wait too long to get your money back.