SeeCalifornia.com

Pictured: Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk summer music festival with free concerts.

California beach festivals can be wildly successful, though we’ve seen a few of them flop. Just having a free event is no guarantee that people will come.  If the weather’s cold, it’s off-season and the kids are in school, you might be sitting out in the sand alone.

Last year it looked like things were really heating up with the beach fest scene when a company called Wet Electric got permits for a 21+ beach event. They paid to rope off a portion of Huntington State Beach for a rave in which tickets were sold  for $75& up. In addition to drink specials, cabanas and a pool (constructed on the beach,) the party provided an atmosphere that the young & restless seek–sand, sun, bikinis, fun. It’s the type of scene you’ll see in Las Vegas, Florida beaches and Lake Havasu, AZ  during Spring Break.

Californians still struggle with the issues of what’s a good festival or beach party, and what’s isn’t. Wet Electric came at the end of a beach-bummer summer in which riots broke out in Huntington Beach at the US Open of Surfing.  There hadn’t been riots in six years since the Labor Day Weekend party at Pacific Beach in 2007.

In 2014  California beach festivals include the return of the popular Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk free evening concerts, Carlsbad’s Beach Festival, San Clemente Ocean Festival, Pacifica Fog Fest,  and some great sandcastle festivals we previously mentioned.