The Santa Monica Pier's Free Twilight Concert Series Brings Out The Masses

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SCROLL DOWN TO SEE THIS SUMMER’s ENTIRE TWILIGHT CONCERT LINE-UP!

On July 7, the Santa Monica Pier hosted its first concert of it’s annual Twilight Concert Series, and it was a sight to behold. I have covered the Santa Monica Pier Twilight Concerts for the past four years, and never before have I ever seen a turnout like the one I saw at this years inaugural Twilight Concert.

Now in its 32nd year, the Twilight Concerts have always been popular draw for local residents and visitors alike. Whenever I have friends visiting Los Angeles during the summer and they ask me for fun suggestions, I always recommend attending a concert at the Santa Monica Pier. After all, there isn’t a much better way to spend a summer day/eve, at the beach with a picnic listening to some quality music.

With a lineup that is always extremely well-curated, there seems to be a noticeable step up in talent this year compared to year’s past. In fact, this year’s line-up (which is listed below) is about as impressive as the year that Earth Wind and Fire headlined the season finale years ago. With the social media giant Snapchat presenting this year’s festival, it would be a pretty reasonable assumption that this year’s talent budget has seen a “slight” increase from last year’s.

It just happens to be perfect timing for Snapchat. With the Expo Line finally running all the way into the heart of Santa Monica, those who shuddered at the thought of dealing with traffic and parking in order to get to the concerts no longer have excuses to make, and based on the huge crowd that was present it seems that the Expo Line is definitely doing what it was forecasted to do, which was bring in more foot traffic and business into the heart of Santa Monica.

Based on what I’ve heard from those in the know, where last year’s concerts averaged around 16,400 visitors, I am willing to bet that there were in excess of 20,000 visitors at this year’s first concert, and will surely average at least that throughout the summer.

The pier, decorated with huge, rainbow colored, bean shaped balloons, had several sponsor related, art installations and activity booths. I’m sure that those installations and booths were being activity frequented by the pier patrons, I couldn’t even make my way to them because the crowd, packed shoulder to shoulder, took too long for me to navigate through. While the audience was waiting for music, KCRW’s Jason Bentley spun groovy tunes.

When I looked down at the beach, there were unless groups of concert attendees picnicking with their friends on beach towels as police security patrolled its perimeter. I would have thought that with the increased budget, the Twilight Concerts would have re-implimented the video screens and speakers facing the beach crowd as they had in 2014.

The weekly concerts from 7 to 10 o’clock each Thursday, but if you want to be able to see (and really hear) the acts performing on stage, early arrival to gain access on the pier to watch the performance is highly suggested.

Below is the list of artists performing at this year’s Twilight Concerts Series. This page will be updated with reviews and photo galleries of those concerts that were are able to attend. Please keep checking back here for updates!