If the Association of Surfing Professional's top 34 surfers get skunked when the Quiksilver Pro New York hits Long Beach next month (Sept. 1-15), event organizers are taking measures to make sure spectators stay busy.
Quik claims that its mix of surfing, skate, BMX, and moto demos and music performances -- the second of three events in the Quiksilver Pro Global Series that also includes ASP World Tour stops in Australia and France -- will be the biggest such experience in the action sports world. Some 40 musical acts have been booked to perform throughout the week.
Festivities commence Saturday, Sept. 3, at a vast site adjacent to the boardwalk between Edwards and Long Beach Boulevards. The opening show features Saves the Day, Girl Talk, and a surprise guest. Interpol takes the stage on Sunday, while lesser-known bands like Civil Twilight, Temporary Grace, and River City Extension fill out the mid-week lineup. The Flaming Lips, Taking Back Sunday, and the Max Weinberg Experience bookend the festival's performances.
The concerts conclude the following Saturday with a benefit show hosted by 10-time ASP champion Kelly Slater. "We've got a surprise guest playing this year with a few guest appearances," Slater said in a press release. Details regarding the beneficiaries of the concert haven't been made available.
One of the primary concerns for Long Beach officials is crowd control. The Quik Pro opens over Labor Day weekend, one of the busiest in the region. According to the city's website, "on a normal holiday weekend, we would typically have approximately 50,000 beachgoers on average." When reached by ESPN, city officials did not give an updated estimate of the traffic increase they expect from the event.
However, their website says they are anticipating an additional 20,000 visitors -- a figure expected to fluctuate. Long Beach based that number on the Great South Bay Festival in nearby Patchogue, which hosts approximately the same amount of guests per day during their three-day music and arts festival.