Coastal Country Jam Comes to Long Beach
Coastal Country Jam, one of the biggest summer events on the country music calendar, celebrates its fifth year in a big way, Sept. 16 and 17 at Long Beach’s Marina Green Park. Headlined by the likes of Blake Shelton and Tim McGraw, the festival not only features more than 20 hours of performances by some of country’s biggest stars, but also a wide-ranging list of things to do, eat, drink, dance and throw bean bags into.
Given the massive, multimedia stars headlining the event, as well as the recent addition to the lineup of iconic country duo Brooks and Dunn–making their first LA County appearance since 2009–it’s easy to understand why Coastal Country Jam is considered one of country music’s biggest annual events.
Big enough to outgrow the original Huntington Beach home where it debuted in 2016. When organizers went looking for a site to grow into, they first looked at where their ticket buyers were coming from. After Huntington Beach, they found that Long Beach residents made up most of their audience. That led to an inquiry into the city itself that eventually led to Marina Green Park.
“We found that we had a lot of fans here already,” said Steve Thacher, President of Activated Events, which is putting on the event. “And Marina Park is fantastic. You’ve got green grass, a widespread area that makes it easy to walk around. It’s centrally located and has lots of accessible parking. And then you have the fact that you have the Queen Mary and the harbor on one side of you and that gorgeous skyline, especially at night, behind. It seems like you’re getting the best of both worlds.”
The same could be said for the festival itself, since music is only part of what will be on display. There will be food and games–i.e. a cornhole tournament–art installations, a free Ferris wheel and dancing. Lots of dancing.
Coastal Country has partnered with Long Beach’s own Cowboy Country Saloon to run what’s being called the Country Club, a huge tent space dedicated to line dancing. And, as Thacher knows, there are a lot of people dedicated to line dancing.
“I can guarantee you that thing is going to be packed from the time we open until when we’re done,” he said. “I know there are some people who probably will spend most of their time inside the tent.”
For those venturing out to see live performances, Thacher says that besides the well known headliners there are several acts that could well be headlining themselves.
“Dustin Lynch puts on an amazing performance, super high energy, great songs that everybody knows, a true performer,” said Thacher. He also notes that MacKenzie Porter, who opens the festival on Saturday, is likely to perform with Lynch with whom she had a massive hit with “Thinking ‘Bout You.”
Other notables include Maren Morris, Tyler Hubbard–of Florida Georgia Line–as well as a special performance by Flo Rida. Speaking of special, Thacher said that he knows he’s “pointing out the obvious, but the two headliners have great counterparts by way of their wives.” McGraw is married to Faith Hill, while Shelton is married to Gwen Stefani. “I have it on pretty good intel that their wives might just be there. I’ll let you figure out the rest.”
For more information or passes to Coastal Country Jam, click here.
