canceled

The beach has claimed another first-time music festival this year.

Ocean Way, the beachfront Santa Monica music fest, has been canceled just two weeks before debuting. The two-day event was set for Sept. 26-27.

Goldenvoice, the promoter behind Ocean Way as well as the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, announced the news Friday in an email from its ticketing platform AXS.

“Due to the impacts of Hurricane Marie, the City of Santa Monica has canceled the inaugural Ocean Way festival,” organizers said in a statement. “Storm surf and runoff [have] caused significant beach erosion and the festival can no longer be safely held as planned. Plans are already underway to bring the festival back to Santa Monica in 2027.”

Tickets, which ran from $249 to $2,250, will be refunded within five to seven business days, the promoter said.

Hurricane Marie, spurred by the “Super El Niño” weather pattern resulting from warming waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean, severely damaged coastal areas from Malibu to Long Beach and Dana Point

“I am deeply saddened that severe weather and beach conditions have forced the City and Goldenvoice to make this difficult decision. However, the safety of festival-goers, our residents and the Pier must remain our priority,” Santa Monica City Council member Dan Hall said in a statement to The Times. “With Hurricane Marie also causing sinkholes in Malibu and triggering home evacuations in Long Beach due to rising surf, the rapid erosion of the beach near the Sandbox event space over the past few days is deeply concerning. The City is working rapidly to keep the Pico storm drain and shoreline repaired and ready for upcoming weather.”

“While we are all disappointed,” Hall said, “I remain optimistic about bringing Ocean Way back next summer.”

The fest was slated to have headline sets by the Killers and Olivia Dean, along with Khruangbin, Sublime, Jack White and many others.

Goldenvoice announced the festival in July, with high hopes that it would open up the waterfront to more public events and concerts in Santa Monica and establish a new marquee festival on the west side of Los Angeles. Santa Monica’s retail and nightlife scenes have struggled in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the festival, which promoters touted as car-free, would have set a precedent for transit-oriented concertgoing.

“We’ve got to take a chance on new things,” Goldenvoice concert producer Nic Adler told The Times in August. ”There is pressure. I think the city wants it, but that takes a little bit of risk and trying something new.”

“We really cannot keep doing the same things that we’ve always done and expect for Santa Monica to shine,” Santa Monica Mayor Caroline Torosis said in an earlier interview. “We have to invite people back to our city. We have been yearning to get back a big music festival on our beach to showcase the city, because the beach is our best asset.”

The festival is the second major beachside concert to go down this year. The inaugural LA Jazz Festival on Dockweiler Beach was canceled on what would have been its opening day, after its finances and permitting fell through.

Climate change and weather damage have become a major concern for festivals. Bonnaroo, in Tennessee, announced last month that the festival would take 2027 off to repair the grounds, after heavy storms canceled sets and prompted evacuations this year. Stagecoach, the country music festival on the same site as Coachella, also temporarily shut down this year due to strong winds.

LONDON — More than 400 flights were canceled Tuesday due to a technical issue in Britain’s air traffic control system, reported the flight monitoring website Flightradar24.

Britain’s National Air Traffic Services said a problem had been identified in its flight processing system and engineers were urgently working on the issue, which affected flights across the U.K.

In an update, it said it had “implemented a fix and our flight system is starting to recover.”

About 425 flights to and from U.K. airports, including Heathrow, were canceled, affecting services operated by multiple airlines including British Airways, EasyJet, KLM and Lufthansa.

The affected airports, which also included Stansted and City in London, as well as airports in Manchester, Birmingham and Scotland, said the technical issue caused disruptions. They warned passengers to check the status of their flight with their airline.

Budget airline EasyJet said some of its flights were “unable to operate” and that the system failure caused “delays to flights across Europe.”

Some passengers took to social media to complain about being stuck on the tarmac for hours. Many expressed frustration about a lack of communication from airlines.

Heathrow’s website showed that many short-haul flights departing for European destinations had been canceled or delayed.

Arriving flights did not appear to be affected. It was not immediately clear what caused the technical problem.

J. Cole’s concert in Sacramento was canceled Thursday, following the death of a crew member.

The tour stop at Golden 1 Center was nixed after a member of the rapper‘s crew was involved in a deadly crash earlier that day.

The venue and concert promoter Live Nation shared the news on social media.

“Following the tragic passing of a member of the touring crew in a trucking accident this morning, J. Cole’s performance at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento tonight, August 27, has been canceled,” the statement read. “Our thoughts are with the crew member’s family and loved ones during this incredibly difficult time.”

According to the Sacramento Bee, California Highway Patrol said that around 6 a.m., a touring member driving a big rig crashed on Interstate 5 in Yolo County, when the semitruck drifted onto the right shoulder and tried to return to the road off southbound I-5 and overturned south of Zamora. The crew member died at the scene, according to police.

Per the outlet, the big rig was transporting touring equipment from Tuesday night’s Seattle show.

The Yolo County Coroner’s Office told the Sacramento Bee that the driver was identified as Jarlath Parkinson, 66, of Jackson, S.C.

The exact cause of the crash is unknown. “May have been a distraction or fell asleep. Unfortunately, the solo occupant did not survive the crash,” Sgt. David Barker of the California Highway Patrol said.

Parkinson, who went by “Chip,” shared his adventures as an entertainment specialist truck driver on social media. His wife, Regina, posted a photo of the two on Friday morning with the caption, “The love of my life.” Parkinson leaves behind three children and three grandchildren.

According to Live Nation, concertgoers who purchased their tickets through Ticketmaster can expect an automatic refund while those who bought tickets through third-party resellers were told to contact their point of purchase.

J. Cole’s tour is in support of his seventh album, “The Fall-Off,” and he’s slated to play Oakland for a two-night run over the weekend. The show will come to Los Angeles and Inglewood for four shows next week.

Representatives for J. Cole did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment.

California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta abruptly pulled out of a planned mediation session Monday to seek a resolution to the antitrust lawsuit that has stalled Paramount’s blockbuster $111 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.

Bonta, in a statement, cited Paramount’s alleged leaking and misrepresenting information the two sides discussed during a preliminary session Friday.

Representatives of Bonta and Paramount Skydance came together late last week to set ground rules for Monday’s meeting, which was to involve Paramount Skydance Chief Executive David Ellison.

One of the rules had been confidentiality of the mediation process.

“I have pulled down this meeting,” Bonta said in a statement. “As I have said before, generally for all cases, I prefer to resolve disputes in the boardroom, not the courtroom. As I’ve also said, if the opposing party in litigation wants to meet in good faith to make a sincere effort to resolve the case.”

Bonta went on to say “Not only did Paramount leak the alleged substance of the settlement discussions, but they misrepresented these discussions, demonstrating a lack of good faith.

“As soon as Paramount stops playing games and engages sincerely, my office is happy to meet again.”

This is a developing story.