After announcing both its expanded weekend and its lineup, SunSoaked, house master Kaskade’s annual beachside music festival, is seeking to expand its activity along Alamitos Beach by having multiple free community events leading up to the festival on July 13 and 14.
According to plans submitted to the California Coastal Commission by Live Nation and the city, SunSoaked hopes to expand its timeline from Monday, July 8, to the end of the festival, offering both community events and youth summer camps. Plans include professional and amateur sand sculpting (attached to an 84,235 square-foot sand sculpture garden), skateboarding events and clinics (in a 25,788 square-foot skate park they hope to build), beach volleyball clinics and games, beach yoga, and water safety demonstrations.
The plans also entail the “construction of a 491,385 square-foot temporary stadium” and a deposit of $150,000 into “a fund managed in coordination with the City of Long Beach for activities to engage underserved youth in coastal access and recreation opportunities, including free swim and sailing lessons, Junior Lifeguard scholarships, and the All City Beach Day.”
The Kids Beach Days are expected to run from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. through the weekdays of the event, July 8 through 12; they will be available to city-run summer camps in Long Beach and Drop-In participants.
“The applicants expect between 100 and 150 different campers to attend each of the five Kids Beach Days,” the report read. “The free community events will be held on the beach adjacent to the temporary stadium. The applicants are also proposing to provide transportation and meals for youth camp participants attending each free community event day, prioritizing camps located in communities where barriers to coastal access exist.”
The commission will hear the plans tomorrow, Wednesday, May 8.
Brian Addison is a columnist and editor for the Long Beach Post. Reach him at [email protected] or on social media at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.