Beach Can't Host a Music Festival: Ocean Way Festival's Debut Canceled Over Coastal Erosion

The stage hadn't even gone up yet, and the waves had already eaten away a chunk of the beach. The inaugural Ocean Way Festival, originally scheduled for September 26-27 at Santa Monica Beach in California, was called off by organizers via social media on Friday, September 11. The reason wasn't ticket sales or lineup issues — it was a straightforward physical problem: swells kicked up offshore by Hurricane Marie, combined with runoff from the storm, drastically shrank the amount of usable beach space, leaving the site unable to support the stage, equipment, and other infrastructure.

The festival is run by the same team behind Coachella and Stagecoach. The original two-day lineup was stacked, with The Killers, Olivia Dean, Jack White, and Khruangbin headlining, alongside Sublime, Durand Jones and the Indications, Alvvays, and NME 100 alum 54 Ultra. Beyond the music, the event had also planned to weave in food, wellness, sustainability, and local beach culture themes.

Organizers say they're planning to bring Ocean Way Festival back to Santa Monica next year, with preparations already underway. Ticket holders will be automatically refunded. As of now, there's no word on whether next year's lineup will look any different.

This isn't the only festival extreme weather has taken down this summer. Katy Perry's headline set at Werchter Boutique was scrapped earlier over severe thunderstorms, with her writing online afterward, "I can't change the weather, and I'm even more disappointed that we couldn't come together tonight." B-52's frontman Fred Schneider called the band's experience at France's C Trop Music Festival in Tilloloy "an absolute disaster," with the show canceled just minutes before they were set to go on. Bonnaroo organizers recently noted that the recurring extreme weather conditions they've faced in recent years are behind their decision to take 2027 off to let the grounds recover.