The 16th Annual Surf Guitar 101 Festival and Weekender 2025
World’s Premier Instrumental Surf Music Event
Returns to Southern California August 1-3
What: The Annual Surf Guitar 101 Festival and Weekender 2025
When: Friday – Sunday, August 1-3, 2025
Where: Crystal Ballroom at the Golden Sails Hotel, Long Beach, CA
6285 E. Pacific Coast Highway, Long Beach, CA 9080
surfguitar101festival.com
Ticket Link at StellarShows
Media Contact: Lee Joseph / Reverberations Media
lee@reverberationsmedia.com / 818-415-5543
The Surf Guitar 101 Festival and Weekender 2025 brings instrumental surf music back to its ancestral home in Southern California on August 1-3, 2025. For its 16th edition, the world’s biggest and best surf music event honors this heritage while showcasing the cream of contemporary surf artists from around the world alongside related subculture attractions at the Golden Sails Hotel in Long Beach, California.
It was SoCal guitarist Dick Dale who, by melding instrumental rock ‘n’ roll and his distinctive “wet” reverb sound with Middle Eastern and Mexican influences, put instrumental surf music on the map at the turn of the 1960s. Fellow area acts like the Bel-Airs, The Pyramids, The Challengers, and Eddie & The Showmen swiftly followed.
Surf music has been a worldwide phenomenon ever since, enjoying a “third wave” revival in the 1990s after featuring prominently in hit Quentin Tarantino movie Pulp Fiction. Today, surf music continues to thrive as a vibrant, vivacious scene which boasts distinctive fashion, artwork, and kitschy humor. This year’s Surf Guitar 101 Festival (SG101) reflects the genre’s global diversity, gathering top surf artists from Europe, Japan, and the U.S.
SG101 was founded in 2008 by surf music superfan Jeff “Big Tiki Dude” Hanson from Orange County, California. In 2023, two new partners joined Hanson: record label exec Art Bourasseau of MuSick Recordings, the preeminent surf music label since 1996; and national concert promoter Christopher Burkhardt of Stellar Shows. Together, this formidable trio has taken SG101 to new levels while retaining its auticity and history. In recent years, the fest has hosted many of surf’s top bands such as The Bomboras, The Boss Martians, Messer Chups, Jon & The Nightriders, The Ghastly One, The Surfrajettes, and Satan’s Pilgrims.
The SG101 2025 lineup features more than two dozen acts performing in the Golden Sails’ Crystal Ballroom, including The Phantom Surfers (San Francisco), Jackie & The Cedrics (Japan), The Space Agency (UK), LHD (Croatia), Deadbolt (San Diego), The Surf Coasters (Japan), The Aqua Velvets (San Francisco), plus additional live performances in the intimate Taboo Tiki Room. There will also be interviews with top surf musicians, tribute bands, DJs, vendors, two pool parties, a vintage bikini contest, a full bar, and more.
The Surf Guitar 101 Festival and Weekender 2025 is the place to see and hear the best surf instro bands anywhere, all in one convenient location, where your accommodation need only be steps away in one of the Golden Sails’ 173 air-conditioned guest rooms right on the waterfront. There’s also fine food from Roxanne’s pop-up restaurant and free parking!
Both 3-day passes and individual day passes are available.
