What to Do on the Long Beach Waterfront This Summer
July 23, 2026
July 23, 2026
If you have lived in Long Beach for any stretch of time, the stretch of shoreline between the Aquarium of the Pacific and the Queen Mary has always felt like a place other people came to visit. Cruise passengers. Wedding parties at The Reef. The occasional convention badge lanyard. That version of the waterfront is over. Between a new 11,000-seat concert venue, a landmark restaurant reopening after six pandemic years, and a festival calendar that has quietly stitched itself around both, the residents who already live here have more reason to walk down there in July and August than they have had in a decade.
The practical shift for locals is not that the amphitheater exists. It is that the way you get to the waterfront on a show night has fundamentally changed, and the neighborhood businesses along the route are the ones about to benefit.
Long Beach's new waterfront F&M Bank Amphitheater officially opened Saturday night with a concert by Snoop Dogg, launching an 11,000-seat venue. That opening date was June 6, 2026. For context on what the city has been missing, Long Beach has been without an operating venue since the Long Beach Arena, now part of the Convention and Entertainment Center, stopped regularly booking rock and hip-hop acts.
The location matters. The stage sits between the Queen Mary and Harry Bridges Memorial Park, which means the amphitheater will become the largest waterfront venue of its kind on the West Coast. And the seating logic is inverted from what you would expect at a shed venue. According to Legends Global's Dan Hoffend, "If you sit in the very top row, what you would consider the worst seat in the house, it's a spectacular view. The Queen Mary is sitting there in all its glory. You're looking across the harbor. What would be perceived as the worst seat is actually the best seat because you see it all."
The inaugural summer schedule is not a soft launch. Announced performances for its inaugural season include Claypool Gold featuring Primus on July 3, Lil Wayne and 2 Chainz on Aug. 1, Toto, Christopher Cross and The Romantics on Aug. 14, Luke Bryan on Aug. 15, 311 and Dirty Heads on Aug. 18, Jack's Mannequin, Something Corporate and Andrew McMahon on Aug. 22, Nas and The Roots on Aug. 28, Los Angeles Azules on Sept. 5, Deep Purple on Sept. 11, Five Finger Death Punch on Sept. 18 and Motley Crue on Sept. 19.
This is the piece nobody outside the city has fully absorbed. There is no general admission parking at the amphitheater. Attendees can park in the designated Shoreline Drive lot and use free shuttle service to the venue. For a resident, that changes the math. Instead of grinding through Ocean Boulevard traffic on a Saturday night, the smart move is water.
AquaLink boats run by Long Beach Transit will leave every 30 minutes from a dock near the Aquarium of the Pacific before and after the show. They cost $5 for a round trip. Five dollars, round trip, from Rainbow Harbor. If you live near Pine Avenue, Alamitos Beach, or anywhere with reasonable access to downtown, you can be at the show without touching a parking lot. Bikes and e-scooters get storage on site as well.
There is also a hidden freebie built into the concert-night experience. Hoping to keep concertgoers entertained before the show, there will also be free admission to the Queen Mary on concert days. That is a $30-ish daytime ticket you already know about, and on show nights it becomes a warm-up act.
The other headline on the waterfront this summer is a comeback nobody was sure would happen. The Reef shut down at the beginning of the pandemic, and while the space opened up again for private events when allowed, the dining room has remained closed for the past six years.
The timing was deliberate. Owner John Tallichet said they were waiting for the right time. The opening of Long Beach's new waterfront amphitheater, practically next door, was the perfect opportunity. The Reef reopened the week of June 23, 2026, at 880 Harbor Scenic Drive.
For residents who have driven past that dark building on the way to the Maya Hotel for years, this is the anchor tenant of a corridor that finally has a reason to keep its lights on past 9 p.m. The Reef has gone through many changes in its 68 years. The original building was destroyed in a fire in 1976, but was quickly rebuilt. Several renovations have turned it into the grand, three-story space it is today.
The city's existing summer program has quietly rearranged itself around the new venue. If you have kids in school, a dog to walk in the evenings, or you just want a Friday night that does not involve the 405, here is what is worth putting in your calendar between now and Labor Day.
Love Long Beach Festival, July 18–19, Shoreline Aquatic Park. Featuring more than 50 DJs and live musicians performing on multiple stages, Love Long Beach takes place July 18-19 at Shoreline Aquatic Park. Beyond musical talent, the weekend encompasses a diverse experience that also offers yoga, meditation, sound healing as well as arts and crafts at the Healing Arts Village & Sanctuary and a Kid's Corner. There's also food trucks, vendors and fully stocked bars.
Vans Warped Tour, July 25–26, Shoreline Waterfront. The Vans Warped Tour returns to Long Beach on July 25–26, continuing as North America's longest-running touring music festival. Held at the Shoreline Waterfront, it brings together punk, rock, and alternative acts across multiple stages. The more than 70 bands featured include such legacy acts as Jimmy Eat World and Simple Plan as well as rising artists like Nova Twins and KennyHoopla.
Long Beach Jazz Festival, Aug. 8–9, at the new Amphitheater. The 36th annual Jazz Fest will be held at the Long Beach Amphitheater. There will be great food, drink and art to enjoy while listening to acclaimed jazz performers. As in year's past, the festival will put a special emphasis on wellness with its Health and Wellness Pavilion featuring inspirational and expert speakers, treatment areas, vendors and healthy food sampling stations. The venue change is the story here. A festival that has lived on grass for 36 years is now inside a purpose-built room.
Stroll & Savor on 2nd Street, Belmont Shore. Come hungry to Stroll & Savor, one of Belmont Shore's most popular events each year. Dozens of eateries will set up shop on the sidewalks of 2nd Street, providing samples of their dishes and drinks. Past delicacies have included everything from sliders to cupcakes to fried oysters. Stroll & Savor events will be held on June 17-18, July 15-16, and August 19-20, 2026. Purchase a sheet of 12 tickets for $15 online or at the Chase Bank the night of the event.
Moonlight Movies on the Beach, Tuesdays at Granada Beach. On Tuesdays from June 23 to August 18, Moonlight Movies on the Beach will host free screenings of movies like Jurassic Park, Mean Girls, and A League of Their Own at Granada Beach, complete with food trucks and kettle corn for sale. Parking is free after 6 PM with limited spots available at the Granada Beach lot.
Taste of Downtown, Aug. 22 on Pine Avenue. Taste of Downtown returns on Aug. 22, 2026, from 2 to 10 PM on Pine Avenue as part of KCRW Summer Nights. The event will showcase the city's diverse food scene. Come early to explore bite-sized food samples, beer, wine and cocktails on Pine between Broadway and 3rd Street, then dance into the evening to sets by KCRW DJs Nassir Nassirzadeh and Raul Campos.
The dining picture at the east end of the corridor has also shifted. At 2nd & PCH, Bacari has brought its usual formula to Long Beach. This mini-chain's LBC outpost has a vaguely Mediterranean patio with a retractable roof, a small plates menu with everything from lamb kebab to mac and cheese, and a bottomless mimosa brunch on weekends. There's also an open bar special available nightly, where $35 gets you as many Baca-ritas as you'd like in 90 minutes.
Coming to the same complex is a bigger deal for anyone who has driven to Fountain Valley for Vietnamese food. Brodard Restaurant is bringing its famous nem nuong cuon spring rolls to Long Beach. The legendary Vietnamese restaurant is set for a 2026 opening at 6480 E. Pacific Coast Hwy. in the 2ND & PCH shopping center. Brodard is landing at the 2nd & PCH retail complex in the former Tocaya space. The famed Vietnamese restaurant is based out of Fountain Valley and has been named one of the best restaurants in the state.
On the east side of town, Hal Mooney's pizza journey has been a wild one. For those captivated by his refurbishing of an old Huff's at 8105 E. Wardlow Rd. on Instagram, his work is finally reaching its full fruition. Stylized in a 1960s manner, complete with cushioned seating and pendant lights, the space will focus on midwest tavern-style pizza and a few Detroit-style pies, all using their own house starter culture, dubbed "Ruzu," for its dough.
The waterfront was always beautiful. The problem was that it did not have a nightly reason to exist for anyone who was not staying at a hotel. That is what this summer solves. When a venue books up to 40 concert-scale events a year, the sushi place on Ocean, the coffee shop on Pine, and the Belmont Shore wine bar all get a share of the traffic that used to drive straight to Hollywood.
For residents thinking about what their address is worth right now, the short version is this: proximity to a functioning downtown, walkable access to a waterfront that is finally programmed year-round, and transit options that make the car optional are the ingredients local buyers have been asking about for a decade. Long Beach quietly assembled all three between January and June.
If you have been curious about what your home might be worth in a market that just got a lot more interesting to live in, Celeste Castillo is happy to walk through the numbers with you. Get your instant home valuation and let's talk about how the summer of 2026 changes the conversation.
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