3,800 skateboarders, music lovers and partygoers descended on 7th Street and Pine Avenue in downtown Long Beach to attend the 2015 launch of the city’s much-anticipated summer-long free concert series, the Downtown Long Beach Associates’ (DLBA) Summer and Music (SAM).
This year, the anticipation for SAM’s eighth season is especially palpable following the screening of Summer and Music: A Documentary, where attendees packed the Art Theatre to catch the first artfully documented glimpse of SAM bringing revelatory musical goodness to Long Beach.
SAM will officially kick off its eighth season with the return of the all-skateboarding event, 720° Pine, coming Saturday, June 25 from 5:00PM to 10:00PM on Pine Avenue between 6th and 7th Streets. The moniker honors both the famed 1980s Atari arcade game and the location of the downtown venue, while Long Beach’s thriving skateboard culture and its ties to music are reason enough to showcase some of the best musicians from this seaside city and beyond.
Headlining the event will be pro skater and Buskerfest performer Ray Barbee making music with the Mattson Two and Long Beach songwriting legend Brandon Eugene Owens, who’s worked with the likes of Kendrick Lamar to Lauryn Hill. The lineup will also include artists who can both shred on stage and on four wheels, including Korey Dane, The Buttertones, DJ Tuandigglz, and a special DJ set by Devendra Banhart.
“The idea behind 720 stems from my love of music having grown out of skateboarding,” stated SAM Co-Founder Justin Hectus. “I was never good enough to be more than an athletic supporter, but skateboarding and Long Beach are connected in a way that always brings me back to my favorite moments growing up.”
The skate park will be open during the event with a skateboard competition set to take place on a replica of the iconic Cherry Gap at 5:00PM. Before the start of the event, the streets will be used by ASkate Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helps children with autism use skateboarding as a social tool as well as occupational therapy, according to the release. Volunteers or families interested in participating should visit the ASkate website here to sign up.
The live music stage will be set in an arcade lounge with classic video games and a beer garden courtesy of Kress Market, while Hang 10 Taco Truck and Green Truck will be on deck for all intensive grubbing purposes.
For more information about 720° Pine, click here.
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