If you’ve been to our Pier 360 Beach Festival before, you already know – it’s a grand affair.
We’re talking all-day beach volleyball competitions, paddleboard races, swim races, lifeguard competitions, skateboarding, roller- skating, a strongman competition, live music, Polynesian dancing, incredible food, and a pop-up Museum of Beach Culture. It is our annual “WOW” kickoff to Summer, and trust me, you don’t want to miss it.
This event celebrates Santa Monica’s singular role in creating and curating Southern California’s beach culture. There’s truly nothing else like it.
Looking back at how Pier 360 came to be still makes me smile. In 2009, the Pier was celebrating its first 100 years with a full-year of incredible events. When it was all over, we looked at each other and thought, “Now what?”
Well, standup paddleboarding was the latest craze, so in June 2010 we staged a paddleboard race, and it was beautifully grassroots, right down to one of the Pier’s business owners showing up with a giant urn of homemade coffee. A handful of retired Santa Monica lifeguards came out that day, and two of them nudged us about an antique lifeguard dory sitting in a storage room on the Pier. A dory isn’t a paddleboard, so we hadn’t thought much about it, but we opened those doors, and the room was immediately packed. We knew right then – this event had the potential to be something much bigger.
In 2011, we added swim races and a pop-up museum celebrating Santa Monica’s beach and lifeguard history. Volleyball legend Sinjin Smith showed up. The following year brought a beach volleyball competition. Then a half-pipe for skateboarders. Then a roller-skating rink. And last year, we added the spectacular strongman competition – a fitting nod to Santa Monica as home of the original Muscle Beach. Today, Pier 360 is two amazing days on the last weekend in June that celebrate this city like no other event can. It all started because we dared to answer the question, “Now what?” and the answer just keeps getting better.
We’ll see you there.
Jim Harris is the Executive Director of the Santa Monica Pier Corporation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to the preservation and enhancement of the pier visitor experience, and the author of the Pier’s official history book, “Santa Monica Pier: America’s Last Great Pleasure Pier.”