SANTA MONICA—The Santa Monica City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday, December 12 to approve a resolution that would direct the Santa Monica Pier Corporation to move its annual Twilight Concert Series to after Labor Day.
According to a press release from the city of Santa Monica, the concerts are normally held during the summer and hosted by the Pier Corporation for the last 33 years. The event is free to the public and has grown since its inception, boasting crowds into the tens of thousands each year.
As part of a 7-0 vote, the city council instructed the Pier Corporation to comply with several other motions aimed at reducing crowd size and ensuring public safety. Among these are directives to “retain the original spirit of the Twilight Concert Series by limiting attendance to primarily the Pier Deck through a re-imagined, cultural-oriented series of no more than six events starting after Labor Day.”
The Pier Corporation must also implement a no-fee ticket system to reduce overcrowding, remove all speakers aimed towards the beach areas beneath the Santa Monica Pier, relocate the stage so that it is no longer visible from the beach, change the day of the week in which the series is held, and book performers likely to draw a less sizeable crowd. The Pier Corporation will be obligated to limit public safety costs to no more than $400,000 for 2018 events.
The Pier Corporation anticipates collaborating with the City’s Office of Pier Management and Office of Emergency Management to update the existing Emergency Action Plans for the Pier.
According to a December Staff Report on the Pier Corporation’s Twilight Concert Series, the city estimated that accrued costs related to the concerts were in excess of $1 million for 2017.
