A weekend full of performances from world-class artists accompanied by a gentle ocean breeze might just be one of Redondo Beach’s best annual traditions.
BeachLife Festival made its return to Redondo Beach’s Seaside Lagoon on May 1-3, 2026, for three days of live entertainment from over 40 artists. This year, sold-out crowds enjoyed headlining performances from Duran Duran, The Chainsmokers, The Offspring, Slightly Stoopid, and James Taylor throughout the weekend.
Since 2019, BeachLife has celebrated the charms of Redondo Beach, encouraging festivalgoers to stop by local restaurants, bars, and even the historic pier next door. Those who resided nearby were encouraged to utilize a bicycle valet service offered by the festival, allowing for an easy, eco-friendly transportation option. Two main stages – High Tide and Low Tide – alternated acts every hour on the dot so that festivalgoers wouldn’t have to worry about set time clashes. Local DJs and bands welcomed the crowds on smaller stages, and various local non-profit organizations were present to engage with their community.
In the spring and summer months, live music aficionados in Southern California have many options as to where to spend their weekends. But when one of your all-time favorite bands (Duran Duran) is headlining a music festival set alongside a beach, choosing where to go on the first day of May was obvious…
(I also chose to queue up hours before the doors opened, then ran straight to the barricade and stayed there all day with other die-hard fans.)
At the High Tide stage, the General Admission section was located behind two large VIP pits. On the left side of the stage, VIP ticket holders had the option of viewing the show from the front of the stage, or further back to the side on elevated viewing platforms. Meanwhile, the viewing area on the right side of the stage was reserved for Captain’s Lounge holders – an ultra VIP tier that also included complimentary food and drink, private pre-parties, and additional side-stage viewing. Members of the California Surf Club also had access to the Captain’s front of stage viewing pit. A catwalk separated the two VIP sections, and the GA section started at the edge of the catwalk. However, the GA barricade still felt a little far back, especially when the Captain’s pit filled up.
The first artist to take the stage was Jeremy Buck, a musician and philanthropist who calls Redondo Beach home. After moving from Indiana to the South Bay nearly 20 years ago, Jeremy took every opportunity possible to share his love for music with others, consistently performing at local clubs. In 2005, he founded the Rock for Tots charity concert, an annual holiday toy drive concert that unites musicians from all over the South Bay. Being a multi-hyphenate artist who cares deeply for his community eventually led to sync placements, television appearances, and of course, growing a devoted fanbase who showed up bright and early to BeachLife to cheer him on.
This was my first time ever hearing of Jeremy Buck, but it didn’t take long for me to realize exactly why he is so widely loved. Besides having a rock sound that paired perfectly with the surroundings, he was incredibly interactive with the audience. While watching him be very mobile on stage and even taking giant leaps into the air, it was almost impossible to not dance along and cheer. He also recognized his fans that flew in from various parts of the country to join him, some even coming internationally. Jeremy mentioned with gratitude, “I used to think home was the place you came from, but right now on this stage looking at all of you, this is home.”
After Jeremy Buck’s performance, the screen on stage immediately switched to a live feed of the Low Tide stage. BØRNS had begun performing on Low Tide, but many festivalgoers stayed put at High Tide to get a good spot for the next performances. Blankets and towels were spread out throughout the turf, and some festivalgoers even brought inflatable chairs and couches for lounging around in between sets.
While the target demographic of BeachLife skews a bit older, a surge of younger festivalgoers flocked to the High Tide stage for Fitz and the Tantrums and GROUPLOVE. Anyone who has seen Fitz and the Tantrums live at any point throughout their career knows to expect an upbeat, eclectic performance that may just lead to you breaking a sweat from jumping! The band performed many of their classics such as “HandClap” and “Out of My League,” but they also invited everyone to sing along to relatively newer songs like “Good Intentions.”
GROUPLOVE took the stage as the sun was setting, and I loved the enthusiasm from vocalists Hannah Hooper and Christian Zucconi. Hannah made many trips down the catwalk and constantly looked over to interact with fans further back in the crowd. GROUPLOVE was one of my favorite bands in high school, and this was actually the first time I was able to see them live. While I loved being able to “heal my inner teenager,” I couldn’t shake off the sound quality during their set. Everything sounded very loud, and not particularly well mixed. At that point, I could only hope that the sound would improve for Duran Duran.
At 7:30 PM, The Chainsmokers took the stage on Low Tide, and their set was also shown on the screens at High Tide. There were a few interruptions, as the screens were being configured for Duran Duran. The music was still audible though, and there were crowd sing-a-longs to many of their major hits. I’ve loved The Chainsmokers dearly since they released “Roses” in 2014, and have been very vocal over the years about my love for the duo. I truly wished that I could’ve split myself in half to be physically at Low Tide for their set, but this is the nature of music festivals… sometimes sacrifices need to be made!
I was so excited to watch Duran Duran’s performance from up close, especially after having seen them three times on their run of West Coast shows at the beginning of the year. There’s something so magical about being surrounded by strangers enjoying over 40 years worth of music, but those who know just how energetic their performances are also know it’s a completely different vibe watching the action unfold just a few feet in front of you.
At this point, some of you reading this may be feeling a strong urgency to ask exactly how I got into Duran Duran. The short answer would be Spotify and TikTok. The long answer would require us to go back to September 2022, when I signed up to work one of their Hollywood Bowl concerts as an usher. Of course, I knew all of their major hits from the 80s, along with “Come Undone” and “Ordinary World.” What really stood out to me that evening was the showmanship, the jokes frontman Simon Le Bon was making, and the amazing fireworks show while the group performed “Rio.” After that evening, I found myself listening to Rio and Seven and the Ragged Tiger quite often while working on projects late at night. Whether it was working on things related to this blog or school projects, I felt a very special connection to the music and realized it was really helping boost my productivity. There would be nights when the only light illuminating my dorm room was the one from my laptop screen, and the only sound I wanted entering my ears would be that of Duran Duran’s music. Those were some of my absolute favorite core memories from college, and memories I wouldn’t trade for anything.
Fast forward to March 2025, I was editing a short video for my Instagram and TikTok stories, and wanted to use “Hold Back the Rain” as the audio. As most of us know, once you search something on TikTok, the algorithm will continue to show you media related to that search. One morning I was scrolling on the app, and a clip of a younger John Taylor from 1984 “randomly” appeared on my For You page. My initial reaction was, “Why didn’t anyone tell me he looked like this when he was younger?!” I swear, I had no idea. Despite having owned Rio on vinyl for years and noticing the group photo on the sleeve, I just assumed they were a lot older than they actually were. My mom was a casual fan in the ’80s and wasn’t quite a “Duranie,” but that didn’t mean I couldn’t be one now.
That marked the beginning of my journey down the Duran Duran rabbit hole, and one that has led to a great amount of artistic inspiration. I vowed to see them live every chance I could get, and of course, that included going to BeachLife on Friday.
The crowd really started to fill in about 30 minutes before Duran Duran’s set was supposed to start, and quite a few fellow Gen Zers gathered around me. We all shared our stories about how we got into Duran Duran, and I could feel my excitement levels bubbling like a volcano moments away from erupting. Shortly before 9 PM, the stage lights turned blue and purple, and an intro played as the members started to file on stage. This intro quickly shifted to a drum beat that led into “Is There Something I Should Know?” Kicking off their set with a classic track that isn’t played as frequently was a great decision, and one that caught many by surprise. I was screaming, shaking, and tears started rolling down my cheeks as I belted out every single lyric with not a care in the world. As Simon Le Bon quickly stomped down the catwalk and commanded the crowd from less than a meter in front of me, I jumped up and down like never before in my platform boots.
From then on, it was a non-stop highlight reel of a performance. As they moved on to “The Wild Boys,” bassist John Taylor and guitarist Dom Brown ran around the stage while Simon waltzed around both of them passionately. At some moments, he even shared the microphone with John so that the crowd could hear him sing too. During “A View to a Kill,” Simon still marched around the stage, and I felt my vocal cords slowly start to fade out from all my singing and screaming. The show was barely heating up, and I already felt as though it was a memory that would be extremely difficult to top.
“There’s a lot of smells around this place,” Simon commented gleefully. “I can smell fish frying. In fact, it’s making me a little bit hungry.” The group proceeded to play “Hungry Like the Wolf,” complete with a very celebratory energy from the crowd. Beach balls were also being thrown around the crowd, adding to the perfect nighttime beach party vibe.
The banter and playfulness from Simon and the rest of the members is something that really makes Duran Duran shows special. Not only does it contribute to a legendary stage presence, but it also proves that the members still have a rock solid bond decades into their careers. Prior to performing “Invisible” (their 2021 track that went viral thanks to memes related to Metal Gear Solid) Simon humorously shouted, “Alright gamers, this one’s for you.” During “The Reflex,” there is a long-standing tradition of keyboardist Nick Rhodes mentioning a brief excuse after Simon approaches him on stage and asks, “Why don’t you use it?” The excuse of the evening was, “Because I put it inside of that beach ball that keeps bouncing around.” Simon audibly said “oh no!” before continuing on with the song. One also can’t forget how during “Girls on Film,” Simon pretended to walk down the catwalk like a model, complete with a quick spin and flamboyant poses. Meanwhile, Nick could be seen in the back taking photos of the crowd and his bandmates with a small digital camera.
To make the evening even more magical, Duran Duran made their concert debut of their brand new single “Free to Love.” Co-written by Nile Rodgers, the song is a modern funk daydream that bears a message of hope and positivity for the world.
“’Free to Love’ is our call to all the people out there who want peace, hope and understanding to prevail,” Nick said in a press release. “An anthem for freedom, which is the most valuable currency we have, and something that should be truly and freely available for everyone, everywhere. ‘Free to Love’ has a simple message, there is nothing more important than freedom and love. We certainly need a lot more of both in the world right now.”
Prior to performing “Free to Love,” Simon acknowledged how the track’s positivity may have been met with confusion by many, given the current troubling state of the world. “That’s exactly the time when we need uplifting music,” he said. “Don’t forget folks, people gotta have fun. People gotta have sex. People gotta have babies, or else it’s the end of the human race!”
More often than not, it can feel like the end of the world is inching closer and closer. Seeing your favorite artists live is something that puts that feeling on a strict pause, and I’m so thankful that I got to experience that feeling next to thousands of other music lovers at BeachLife. If ending your night by singing and dancing along to “Rio” while you’re literally feet away from the sand doesn’t bring you a sense of happiness that you can hang onto for a while, I don’t know what will.
Thankfully, I don’t have to wonder about that!