Mission Accomplished (Jim Lindberg on BeachLife)

Jim Lindberg, Pennywise frontman and BeachLife brand director, flanked by Zacc West on guitar and Davey Ladder on percussion at Speakeasy stage. Photo by Ken Pagliaro/BeachLife Festival Photographers 

by Jim Lindberg

Sunday morning I was exhausted from taking lap after lap around the festival grounds in my official duty as brand director, guiding the film crew to make sure they were getting great shots of people dancing to the music of our killer lineup, noshing on tasty grinds and knocking back a few drinks. 

In between official duties I was just generally cruising around saying hello to everyone making sure they were all having a good time and enjoying themselves, you know, shaking hands and kissing babies. All that walking around the last two days straight had taken its toll and I was low-key dreading another long day of it. 

I overslept and dragged myself down to the festival just before noon to meet my old music and surf buddy Donovan Frankenreiter. We grabbed a table at the Sidestage restaurant just as our other good buddy G. Love was about to take the stage with his band Special Sauce. 

Donovan and I traded old tour stories about traveling and surfing in Australia together and hanging out jamming on“Take A Load off Annie” with Jackson Browne backstage at the Coach House. Local celebrity chef Tyler Gugliotta brought us out some seared ahi in a watermelon sauce and then a batch of spicy empanadas that were so amazing they made your taste buds feel like they’d just won the California State Lottery. 

Then I look up, and Byron, the drummer from my band, had just jumped on stage and joined G. Love on tambourine rockin’ out to their funky Philly-inspired beats. Then Donovan grabbed a guitar and joined them on their version of the Stones, “Sympathy for the Devil.” 

I got up and grabbed a few strangers and brought them over to watch from the side of the stage as the band ripped through the song, all of them overjoyed, laughing and jamming and having a great time. 

I looked out at the huge crowd of people vibing to the beat, passing beach balls, and dancing like they were having the time of their lives — because they were. The sun came out and it was immediately just this amazing spectacle of humanity vibing out together and everyone getting along and having fun and rocking the f- out! 

And right then I knew that we were all thinking the same thing… “We’ve been waiting for this for SO long!” This is what truly brings people together. I was instantly so happy to be back down at the festival again for a third day in a row — because right out there was proof positive that we had succeeded in our mission in spades. 

We had once again created a ton of good vibes and most importantly, ‘smiles for miles.’ Can’t wait to do it again next year.

Comments:

comments so far. Comments posted to EasyReaderNews.com may be reprinted in the Easy Reader print edition, which is published each Thursday.