Santa Monica Pier board moves to reduce popular summer Twilight Concert Series to a one-day event

The agency that oversees the Santa Monica Pier and its events is taking steps toward clamping down hard on the increasingly popular summertime Twilight Concert Series.

The Santa Monica Pier Corporation Board of Directors passed a motion Monday night that calls for “re-imagining the concert series as a one-day transitional summer celebration” that would be followed by music events in the fall of 2018—“especially during the off-season time periods.”

The Pier Corporation acknowledges that free, inclusive year-round events are part of its mission, but seems to be looking for ways to do that without the free concert series.

It has grown immensely over the years—maybe too much for its own good. For years, various city officials have taken turns voicing concerns that the ballooning crowds were reaching peak levels.

Last season’s lineup included Warpaint, Valerie June, and Khalid. The first show of the series drew so many attendees that police and fire officials worried the event was a safety hazard. Within 15 minutes of the concert’s posted start time, the Santa Monica Police Department was already instructing visitors to “avoid the pier due to overcrowding.”

The motion passed by the Santa Monica Pier Corporation Board of Directors will be sent to the Santa Monica City Council for consideration.

It’s the council that will ultimately decide what happens to the summer concert series, and it’s set to hear the issue on December 12, a representative for the Pier Corporation tells Curbed.

• Santa Monica Twilight Concert crowds have safety officials worried [Curbed LA]
• Santa Monica’s massively popular Twilight Concert Series will return with fewer shows [Curbed LA]

Correction: Due to an editing error, the 2017 Twilight Concert Series lineup included in earlier version of this article was incorrect. The lineup included Warpaint, Valerie June, and Khalid, not Solange, Little Dragon, Kurt Vile, and The Roots.