New dawn for Twilight Pier concerts
Santa Monica’s annual free concert series Twilight on the Pier kicked off its 35th year on August 21, 2019. Former Vampire Weekend member Rostam headlined the opening night on the Santa Monica Pier, along with musical artists Dijon and Jen Awad.
The main stage crowd enjoys the "Twilight On The Pier" concert on Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica, Calif on Wednesday, August 21, 2019. (Joshua Nicoloro/The Corsair)
This year, the festival embraced the theme “Local Meets Global,” bringing in artists from different countries. While Wednesday’s kickoff included a mix of alternative pop, R&B and soul musicians, each week thereafter will encompass sounds from around the world with the themes of “Latin Wave,” “Middle East Beats,” “Island Tide,” “Aussie Splash,” and “Japanese Vibes.”
Over the past two years, the Twilight concert series has experienced a rebranding of sorts, as the longstanding format of the concerts began to pose significant overcrowding and public safety concerns.
In years prior, the event would overflow from the pier onto the beaches, which generated an overwhelming turnout and a less secure event space that could not be fully safeguarded. As a result, this year’s concert took place solely along the pier, with two musical stages, and a comedy stage.
Headliner "Rostam" Plays to a full croud of concert goers during "Twilight On The Pier" Concert series Located on the Santa Monica Pier on August 21st, 2019 in Santa Monica Calif. (Joshua Nicoloro/The Corsair)
Attendees were able to walk in-between stages, vendor booths and the pier’s other attractions throughout the night.
“This is wild… its like an actual festival now,” said Los Angeles native Pasha Vafaee. “They have more than one stage now, and all the seating areas, it’s pretty cool.” This year’s opening night garnered an audience much smaller in scale compared to years prior, and this is thought to be attributed to the changes made by the Santa Monica City Council in late 2017.
These changes included re-orienting the stages so that audiences are more inclined to stay on the pier, setting a limit on the total number of performances, and changing the series’ dates from summer to fall.
Jen Awad starts her 8:30pm set on the "West Stage" During the first of Six concerts called the Twiight Concert series that took place on August 21st 2019 on the Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica, Calif. (Joshua Nicoloro/The Corsair)
With changes to the festival’s set-up and operation came a more intimate and relaxed energy. While those looking for a more energized and crowded concert atmosphere may have chosen to stay home this time around, the changes in orientation seemed to strike a chord with those who are more personally inclined toward less jam-packed events.
“There was definitely a lot more people in the past, like the beach would get pretty packed,” said fourth-year attendee Angel Morales. “Especially when Khalid came, that thing was pretty hectic...but this year is a lot better.”
Twilight on the Pier continues next Wednesday August 28, 2019, and every following Wednesday through September 25, 2019 from 7-11pm on the Santa Monica Pier.
Jackie Sedley also contributed to this report.