Karla Rendon
Editorial Director
An enormous inflatable nipple and other beach balls bounced around the thousands of attendants at the Growlers’ Beach Goth Party III on Saturday at the Observatory in Santa Ana.
The music festival consisted of carnival rides, food trucks and three different stages with over 40 bands joining together to perform for the annual event.
The performing bands were diverse in genres including psychedelic rock, pop-punk, surf rock, experimental/art rock and indie pop.
Many attendants and performers dressed in costumes since the music festival was so close to Halloween.
With such a playful ambience at Beach Goth, costumes ranged from ridiculous and hilarious ones to odes to our favorite cartoon characters.
People in hotdog, banana and gorilla suits roamed the festival while mermaids, fairy princesses and Cheech and Chong made their appearances.
Melissa Brooks, singer of the Aquadolls, decked out in her Sailor Moon costume as the Mystic Braves performed with vampire capes on. Contrast to the lighthearted and childish atmosphere that the carnival rides and piñata-decorated trees gave off, the show’s producers were strict when it came to the bands’ performing time.
This results in almost accurate set times and short sets that lasted at most only 40 minutes. Despite the strict protocol for set times, two performances were affected by a small disorganization in the times.
Indie rock group the Drums expressed their disappointment when one of the show’s producers warned them they had five minutes left to play.
“We’re sorry guys,” said Jonny Pierce, frontman of the Drums. “We wanted to play a couple of more songs, but…”
Immediately after the Drums’ performance was Alice Glass, former singer of experimental-electronic duo Crystal Castles. Glass DJed as the crowd enjoyed her set and showed their excitement for her performance with whistles and screams as they grooved along to her DJ stylings.
Unfortunately for Glass and her disappointed fans, her set was abruptly cut after only 20 minutes of performing despite being promised she would DJ for 40 minutes.
Glass, reasonably upset, threw her middle finger to the producer who broke the news to her and pushed a set of the DJ equipment on the ground then left the stage to which she later tweeted, “my set and Bleached set at beach goth got cut off after 20 minutes … if i was a man maybe i could have played for 30 minutes..”
Since the Growlers hosted the event, it was only natural for them to play last and the longest at the outdoor stage. With an introduction from a mariachi band and people in two Chinese dragon costumes in ode to their newest album, “Chinese Fountain,” the band performed an amazing 45-minute set that had the crowd singing and dancing along.
Plans for a fourth Beach Goth Party have already been announced on The Growlers’ Instagram account, which has been received with excitement from eager fans waiting for another unforgettable day filled with fun music, good food and ostentatious fashion.
Karla Rendon can be reached at karla.rendon@laverne.edu.
