HOW IT ALL BEGAN

It was the success of 1983's "Santa Monica Pier Save the Pier Week," a week long festival and response to the devastating El Nino winter storms (450 feet of the Santa Monica Pier were demolished), that caused an eye-popping realization: the Santa Monica Pier was a fantastic concert venue.  Katharine King, responsible for the entertainment during Save the Pier Week, recognized the potential immediately.  Not since the glory days of the La Monica Ballroom had the pier hosted regular concerts and big bands. The Pier decided to regenerate the excitement of those days with current, unique entertainers.  In the next couple years King produced several free concerts under a large blue and white circus tent. The City took notice of the concerts' popularity, and in 1985 the Santa Monica Arts Commission budgeted seven thousand dollars and asked King to produce a series that would promote dancing on the pier.  And thus was born a 27 year tradition.

The series quickly outgrew the circus tent as well as the dance floor all the while becoming a summer ritual for folks in Venice, Santa Monica and the westside of Los Angeles. It developed a reputation for mixing local bands with international acts and classics in the musical world.  Such an eclectic mix helped the series grow into the premier event in Santa Monica as well as one of the largest longest-running free concert series in the country attracting 8,000 to 15,000 music and dance enthusiasts to the pier each week.

Artists that have performed over the years include:  

Patti Smith, Neville Brothers, Joan Baez,  Idan Raichel,  Dave Alvin and the Guildty Women, Mavis Staples, David Grisman, Salif Keita, Los Amigos Invisibles, Russell Gunn, The Bonedaddys, Willi K & Amy, Jose Feliciano, Hugh Masekela, Eric Burdon, The Neville Brothers, Burning Spear, Quetzalcoatl, Bo Diddley, Tito Puente, Queen Ida, Asleep at the Wheel, Tower of Power, Texas Tornados, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Poncho Sanchez, Flaco Jimenez  with  Ry Cooder,  Richard Elliot,  Beausoleil, Malathini & the Mahotella Queens, Billy Vera & the Beaters, Manu DiBango, Charlie Musselwhite, Junior Brown, Dick Dale, The Drifters, The Marvellettes, Papa Wemba, The Shirelles, The Radiators, NRBQ, John Mayall, Angelique Kidjo, The Young Dubliners, Cafe Tacuba, Junior Reid, Toots & the Maytals, The Yellowjackets, Boozoo Chavis, Eddie Palmieri, Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, Johnny Otis Revue, El Vez, Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, Maynard Ferguson, the Sugarhill Gang, KoKo Taylor, Buck Owens, Ozomatli, Baaba Maal, Shuggie Otis, Delbert McClinton, Jefferson Starship, Morgan Heritage, Rachid Taha, Eileen Ivers, Brothers Johnson, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Fishbone, Wailing Souls, Richie Havens, Janis Ian, Blackalicious, Clarence Clemons Temple of Soul, Ex-Centric Sound System, Thee Midniters w/ Little Willie G, The Knack, Suzanne Vega, Marc Cohn, Indigo Girls, Super Diamond, The Afrocelts, Peter & Gordon, Michele Shocked, Spanish Harlem Orchestra