For BeachLife Festival co-founder Allen Sanford, this weekend’s three-day concert will be really special because he’s been trying to book Friday’s headliner since the festival’s inception in 2019. Six years later, things went his way when he booked rock royalty Lenny Kravitz to headline day one of the festival.
“We’ve been trying to get Lenny since the beginning, and Lenny doesn’t play a lot and we just think it’s going to be the perfect show,” said Sanford, during a phone interview about two weeks before the festival returns to Redondo Beach on Friday, May 2 through Sunday, May 4.
Kravitz is joined by other headliners that include Long Beach legends Sublime on Saturday and Alanis Morrisette closing things out Sunday night. They’re joined by a lineup of more than 40 other acts performing on four stages that include multi-Grammy-winning alt-rockers Train, punk and new wave pioneers The Pretenders, indie folk rockers Mt. Joy, jazzy hip-hop trio Digable Planets and, since this is about the beach life, the Beach Boys are set to perform with John Stamos behind the drums.
It’s a stacked lineup that for Sanford indicates the growing appeal of this festival.
“It feels like we’re no longer a teenager, we’ve gone through a little but of a growth and we’ve crossed a bit of a threshold here and made it into more of a regional or national attraction,” he said.
With Lenny Kravitz, whose years of hit songs include “Are You Gonna Go My Way,” “Fly Away,” “It Ain’t Over ’til It’s Over” and “American Woman,” anchoring the opening day, Friday will be the festival’s most rock-heavy night.
Sublime headlining night two will bring a more hometown feel to the festival, since the day also includes performances by the Long Beach Dub All Stars, Hermosa Beach’s Tomorrow’s Bad Seeds and Newport Beach’s Sugar Ray, who have performed at every single BeachLife Festival.
“This day is like my youth at Rat Beach from 11 a.m. to…
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