Ocean Way Festival in Santa Monica Canceled Weeks Before Planned Debut
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Goldenvoice has cancelled its inaugural Ocean Way festival in Santa Monica, California, two weeks before it was due to open, blaming beach erosion caused by Hurricane Marie. The Los Angeles Times first reported that ticketholders received messages from ticketing platform AXS confirming the cancellation, with organisers saying storm surf and runoff had made the beachfront site unsafe to use as planned.
The two-day event had been scheduled for 26–27 September and was set to headline The Killers, Olivia Dean, Jack White and Khruangbin, alongside Sublime, Durand Jones and the Indications, Alvvays, SG Lewis and others, from the promoters behind Coachella and Stagecoach. Tickets, which ranged from $189 single-day packages to over $700 for premium weekend passes, will be refunded via AXS within a few business days, and organisers say they intend to bring the festival to Santa Monica in 2027 instead.
- Ocean Way festival in Santa Monica cancelled due to Hurricane Marie beach erosion
- Headliners included The Killers, Jack White, Olivia Dean and Khruangbin
- Ticketholders to be refunded; festival now planned for 2027
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Ocean Way was a brand-new music festival planned for Santa Monica, California, organised by Goldenvoice, the promoter behind Coachella and Stagecoach. It was due to run over two days, 26–27 September, with a lineup including The Killers, Olivia Dean, Jack White and Khruangbin, on a site set up on the beachfront.
The event mattered as Goldenvoice's first attempt to bring a major festival to this particular stretch of coast, testing whether the format could work in a new, high-profile beach location rather than its usual desert or inland venues. Its success or failure was likely to shape whether similar coastal festivals would follow in future years.
Hurricane Marie is the storm referenced as the cause of the disruption, having generated large waves and runoff that affected the beach area where the festival was to be staged. Beach erosion of this kind can alter the shape and stability of a shoreline, which is relevant to any event relying on that land being safe and usable.
Full account
Goldenvoice has cancelled the inaugural Ocean Way festival, which had been due to take place on the beach in Santa Monica, California, on 26 and 27 September, just a fortnight before doors were set to open. Ticketholders were notified via the ticketing platform AXS that the event could not go ahead, with organisers citing the impact of Hurricane Marie, which had battered the Southern California coastline in the days beforehand.
According to the cancellation notice, storm surf and runoff from the hurricane caused substantial erosion of the beach, leaving organisers unable to stage the festival safely at the planned site. One report noted that the City of Santa Monica itself made the call to cancel the event, underlining that the decision was tied to municipal safety concerns as well as the promoter's own assessment. Refunds are being processed automatically for all ticketholders, with organisers saying the money should reach accounts within a few business days; prices had ranged from around $189 for single-day four-packs up to more than $700 for premium weekend passes.
The line-up for the debut edition, announced in July, was a substantial one for a first-year event, headlined by The Killers, Olivia Dean, Jack White and Khruangbin, alongside Southern California favourites Sublime and Durand Jones and the Indications. Also billed were Alvvays, SG Lewis, Hiatus Kaiyote, BLOND:ish, Poolside, a Hot Chip DJ set, DJ Harvey and numerous other acts. Goldenvoice, the promoter behind Coachella and Stagecoach, had framed the festival as a tribute to Santa Monica's musical heritage, with its VP of regional festivals, Nic Adler, pointing in July to the city's history of legendary shows at the Civic Auditorium and its connection to Ocean Way Recording near the beach. Organisers have said they intend to bring the festival back to Santa Monica in 2027, skipping a 2026 edition entirely.
The setback is not an isolated one for the Los Angeles festival circuit this year: the inaugural LA Jazz Festival, which had been due to include beachfront shows at Dockweiler Beach featuring performers such as John Legend, Janelle Monáe and George Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic, was also called off in August and pushed back to 2027, in that case reportedly because of late-arising public safety and permitting cost issues rather than weather. Together, the two cancellations point to the practical difficulties of staging major outdoor music events on Los Angeles-area beaches, whether from natural forces like storm erosion or from the logistics of local permitting.
Where outlets differ
Source 2 explicitly attributes the cancellation decision to 'the City of Santa Monica', framing it as a municipal call, whereas Source 1 presents it more as the organisers'/AXS's own announcement without naming the city as the decision-maker.
Source 1 gives more detail on ticket pricing (specific dollar figures for single-day and weekend passes) and includes background quotes from Goldenvoice's Nic Adler about the festival's connection to Santa Monica's musical history; Source 2 omits these details.
Source 2 provides a longer, more complete supporting line-up (including DJ Harvey, Austin Millz, Vandelux, Heidi Lawden, Carlita, Good Neighbours, Coco & Breezy, Nala and Erez) and draws a direct comparison to the separately cancelled/postponed LA Jazz Festival, a connection Source 1 does not make.
Source 1 notes the LA Times broke the story first; Source 2 does not mention which outlet reported it first.
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