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"Outcry over large crowds, as well as alleged public drinking, nudity and drug use, at a free ocean-side concert in Hermosa Beach earlier this week has prompted the city to beef up security and make other changes to this weekend's show.
In addition to regular police presence, 20 uniformed private security guards will patrol the sands, keep aisles clear and remind attendees that alcohol consumption is illegal at Sunday's show, city officials said.
The event, the final installment of this summer's annual concert series, will also start a half-hour earlier with a reconfigured seating arrangement that eliminates a dance floor.
Also, on-stage performers will announce that drinking and drug use is illegal and aisles must remain clear, officials decided.
City staff initiated the changes after this past weekend's concert featuring a popular reggae band attracted large and rowdy crowds of up to 7,000 people - a scene one resident called "Woodstock gone mad."
"It was an absolutely frightening situation," Jeff Duclos told the City Council on Tuesday. "It's not the event we're saying it is. It has morphed into something else. It's on the beach near a popular plaza, near bars, near liquorstores. It's just a lethal combination."
Kelly Kovac-Reedy, co-founder of the city's Neighborhood Watch program, said her organization received up to 20 e-mails from residents concerned about crowd levels and parking problems, as well as use of alcohol and marijuana at the concert.
One letter Kovac-Reedy read described a fight that broke out in front of a child when a parent tried to break up an exhibitionist couple getting graphically amorous during the concert.
"I really do feel that we sent a very, very bad message this past weekend to the children of Hermosa Beach," she said.
Hermosa was quickly overwhelmed Sunday by concertgoers streaming into town for the free show, parking as far away as Prospect Avenue and walking to the shoreline, City Manager Steve Burrell said.
Though restaurants and bars apparently benefited from the event, several downtown retail businesses closed their doors early Sunday, overwhelmed by a large number of unexpected shoppers, said Carla Merriman, executive director of the Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau.
Sunday's college-age crowd was also a markedly different demographic from the usual audience of young families that hunker down in the sand for the concerts, at which the biggest problem is usually a bathroom shortage, Burrell said.
City officials attributed Sunday's high attendance to the wide fan base of the group Rebelution, as well as technology like text messaging that allowed savvy attendees to quickly alert their friends of the show.
But John McCollough, a promoter who hired Rebelution and organized an environmental exposition that preceded the concert, said Wednesday that he alerted the city of the band's popularity and cautioned that the act could draw up to 10,000 people.
Though critical of some of attendees' antics, as well as a perceived lack of security at the event, McCollough said he was pleased overall with the outcome of the fair and concert.
"We were anticipating a larger crowd, and Rebelution is a big proponent of the green lifestyle," he said. "Some people may view their lifestyle as alternative, but I feel like the crowd they produced at the actual event turned out to be pretty mellow."
Four police officers were initially on duty at the concert, but 10 patrolled Sunday's event by its conclusion, said Police Chief Greg Savelli, who noted that officers took just two reports of physical violence at the show.
"The crowd was very large," he said. "It was a stand-up, press-against-the-stage type of crowd. If I had every police officer there, we still wouldn't be able to ticket everybody."
The council Tuesday briefly considered relocating the event to a more inland, residential area like a local park, and City Councilman Michael DiVirgilio proposed completely cancelling this Sunday's concert - a move staffers also initially considered earlier this week.
But ultimately, city leaders decided that extra security - carrying a $1,750 price tag that will be covered by concert donations - combined with a band sporting a more folksy-pop sound would prevent an repeat episode of the last concert.
The council also decided to ask the city's Parks and Recreation Commission to consider how to rebrand the annual concert series as a more family-friendly event.
"Clearly, clearly this was the wrong group," Councilman J.R. Reviczky said of last weekend's show. "It brought in the wrong demographic and, quite frankly, we screwed up."
andrea.woodhouse@dailybreeze.com
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