FESTIVAL REVIEW: Back to the Beach @ Huntington State Beach in California on April 28 & 29, 2018

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones performed at the Day One Back to the Beach at Huntington State Park in California on April 28, 2018. Photo credit: Gloria Skulls

Back to the Beach was festival that took place in beautiful Huntington State Beach in Southern California. Put together by Travis Barker and John Feldman with the help of KROQ, Back To The Beach turned out to be a new weekend destination festival featuring some of the biggest names in modern ska, punk, and reggae.

The Lineup
The bands mentioned on the bill was enough to get many concertgoers attention, with bands like 311, Sublime w/ Rome, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Fishbone (w/ the original line up), Goldfinger (ft. Travis Barker), Hepcat, The Aquabats, Save Ferris, Less Than Jake, Mad Caddies, The Interrupters, Suicide Machines, Mustard Plug, The Aggrolites, Big D and the Kids Table, The Untouchables. No wonder there was over 20 thousand bodies in attendance that weekend. All the bands were amazing and gave a phenomenal performance.

Ticket pricing
Tickets were relatively affordable starting at 59$ for regular admission and went up to the high 7500$. The 7500$ ticket included – VIP ADMISSION TICKET FOR UP TO 10 GUESTS, DEDICATED VIP ENTRY LANE INTO FESTIVAL, PRIVATE RAISED PLATFORM CABANA WITH VIEW OF MAIN STAGE, 2 BOTTLES INCLUDED IN CABANA PURCHASE (WITH SELECT MIXERS), MEAL TICKET TO VIP RESTAURANT (ONE PER PERSON), VIP VIEWING AREA OF MAIN STAGE, AIR CONDITIONED RESTROOMS, ACCESS TO BACK TO THE BEACH VIP LOUNGE and much much more amenities.

The festival was gated by a chain line fence so there were a few music lovers who set down their towels close to the fence and basically got to see the show for free.

Parking
Parking was a big deal for this kind of event, with the festival being held on the weekend, add the regular beach goers it was total chaos trying to find parking. Many of the parking locations were closed due to full parking lots. The second choice was to take a transportation shuttle that was about 10 minutes away from the location, there were using a high school parking lot for this which was also full so they were asking people to park in a park across the street with no assurance that your car wouldn’t be broken into. The shuttle service was charging 15$ per person to take you to and from the festival, what a drag! Hopefully next year they set up a better plan for parking.

Photographers Experience
Having my share of festival shoots I have to admit this was probably one of the worst experiences that I’ve had so far. There was no such thing as the photography tents or any kind of photographer-friendly area. We had to wait by the side stage and if we wanted to sit down we had to sit in the sand. This was disappointing because this was work for some of us and standing all day in the sun was harsh, on top of that our expensive equipment was in danger of being damaged by the sand or just anybody trying to have fun that could have stumbled on you and dropped their drink on you and your equipment. Hopefully, in the future, they honor the photographers a bit more and have a safe space for us to rest and protect our equipment.

Over All
Back to the Beach seemed like it was a success, both days were packed with concert goers and some even brought their kids, It was super warm during the day and harsh cold winds during the night, but hey its all part of the experience. Thank you to everyone that made it all possible and hope to see B2TB in 2019.

– Gloria Skulls, Photojournalist for Go Venue Magazine

Day One

Day Two