by Kevin Cody
Beach concerts will return to the south side of the Hermosa Beach pier on the evenings of Sunday, September 3, and Sunday September 10, under an agreement between the city and the Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce.
The city council unanimously approved the agreement at its Tuesday July 25 council meeting. In exchange for city co-sponsorship, the council agreed to waive the $8,774 beach usage fee. Direct costs of approximately $1,000, related to staff time, parking, and amplified sound permits were not waived.
“I’m thrilled that we are rekindling the music flame this summer,” Mayor Raymond Jackson said. The mayor also noted, “The city is looking forward to a concert series next summer, not only on the beach, but at Valley Park, and South Park, and on the east side at Hermosa View School.”
Councilmember Justin Massey, in motioning to approve the concerts, said he supported waiving the beach usage fee “in appreciation of chamber manager Jessie Accamando’s transformative leadership, and the chamber’s collaborative working relationship with city staff.”
Massey also took the occasion to respond to criticism that the city bungled negotiations with Allen Sanford, who produced Hermosa’s summer beach concerts from 2010 to 2018, before moving on to found the BeachLife music festivals in Redondo Beach in 2019. Without mentioning Sanford by name, Massey said the city spent “tens of thousands of dollars” in support of Sanford’s beach concerts, and that the partnership fell apart when Sanford asked the city to increase its contribution.
“We asked the prior producer to show us his books before we made a decision. When he declined to do that, the city informed him we would issue a request for proposals (RFP) and that he was welcome to submit a bid. He didn’t. So it is incorrect to say the prior producer produced the concerts free of charge [to the city], or that he indicated his desire to continue producing the concerts,” Massey said.
Stanford asked the city for $30,000 to produce the 2019 summer beach concerts, according to news reports at the time. The city selected a different producer for the 2019 summer concerts.
Hermosa’s beach concerts series were canceled in 2020, and 2021 because of COVID.
The city plans to host two beach concerts in September 2024, according to the staff report presented to the council at last week’s meeting.
The bands for the two upcoming concerts have not been selected, Accamando said this week.
On Saturday, September 2, and on Saturday, September 9, the Hermosa Beach Friends of the Parks will host movies on the beach at sunset, just south of the pier. Residents are invited to vote at HermosaMovies.com on the movies they would like to see. ER
