Ask someone who moved to the harbor in the early 2010s what August weekends used to look like, and you get a familiar answer: a summer concert on Saturday, a walk to Tony P's, maybe a Fisherman's Village loop for out-of-town guests. The programming ran on a tourist clock. The 2026 version reads differently. The concert series is now in its 26th year and still free, the $1 WaterBus has extended its calendar into late October to serve resident-facing events, and two of the harbor's most visible restaurant sites are being handed to operators aimed squarely at people who already live here. The weekend is being rebuilt around the neighborhood, not around the visitor.
The Concert Calendar Is Almost Done. Two Nights Left.
The LA County Department of Beaches and Harbors has been running the Marina del Rey Summer Concert Series at Burton Chace Park for a quarter century, and the 2026 slate closes in the next two weeks. Both remaining shows are Saturdays, both are free, and both lean further into the resident-programming pattern than the tourist-magnet symphony openers earlier in the season.
| Date | Act | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Saturday, Aug 8 | Monsieur Periné | Colombian Latin-fusion, Grammy winner |
| Saturday, Aug 15 | D Smoke and Carl Thomas | Inglewood rapper and R&B veteran, closing night |
Seating is festival-style on the lawn, first-come first-served, and low-back chairs and blankets are the standard kit. Public parking runs roughly $7 to $10 in the lots ringing the park, but the more interesting move on concert nights is arriving by water.
The $1 Boat Now Runs Longer Than It Used To
The WaterBus is the piece of harbor infrastructure most residents underuse. It costs a dollar per one-way ride, cash only, and it loops eight boarding stops in about forty-five minutes:
- Fisherman's Village
- Burton Chace Park
- Waterfront Walk near the Ritz-Carlton
- Mother's Beach
- Dolphin Marina
- Esprit
- Wetland Park
- Del Rey Landing
The regular 2026 season runs Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from June 19 through Labor Day on September 7. What is new, and worth noting on your calendar, is what happens after that. The WaterBus keeps running on select fall dates: Fridays from September 4 through September 25 for Dance MDR, and Saturday and Sunday, October 24 and 25, for Marina Spooktacular. The last day of service is October 25. Fall hours shift to 5:00 PM to 11:00 PM for the September Fridays and 2:00 PM to 11:00 PM for the two Spooktacular days.
That extension is the real signal. When a shuttle originally built for summer visitor traffic starts running for harbor dance nights and a family Halloween event, it is because the audience showing up is local. NBC LA covered the season opener and the $1 fare, but the more useful detail for someone living here is that Fisherman's Village and Burton Chace Park are the busiest boarding docks. The line at Esprit or Wetland Park is almost always shorter.
Two Dining Turnovers That Tell You What Comes Next
Two of the most-watched restaurant addresses on the harbor changed hands in the last twelve months, and both replacements point in the same direction.
The former Tony P's Dockside Grill site sat dark after the restaurant closed in mid-2025. In December, the Westside Current reported that LA County entered a license agreement with the California Yacht Club to operate a new sea-to-table restaurant at the site, targeting a Spring 2026 opening while a longer lease amendment is negotiated. In the interim, the club is offering bar service to its members at the space. Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell framed the deal as preserving the community's connection to a location that served residents for decades. A member-first yacht club anchoring the old Tony P's dock is a different signal than another turnkey chain grill would have been.
A little inland, on Washington Boulevard, Yo! Venice reported in May that Pita Cafe filed to open at 3205 Washington Blvd. It would be the chain's fifth Los Angeles-area location, joining Santa Monica, La Cienega, Manchester, and Artesia, and no opening date has been set. The menu is the same one that built the following at the other locations: kabobs, shawarma wraps, falafel, Greek salads, hummus, lentil soup. This is the kind of everyday, mid-price, walk-in operator that fills the gap between the dockside destination restaurants and a home kitchen. It is aimed at people who live within a ten-minute drive.
Read together, the two moves suggest a harbor tilting toward operators who need repeat local traffic to work rather than seasonal visitor spikes.
The Saturday Anchor Most Weekend Guides Miss
There is a piece of the weekend that predates all of the above and does not need a concert to justify itself. The Mother's Beach Farmers Market runs every Saturday from 9 AM to 2 PM, year-round, with free admission. It is the closest thing MDR has to a standing weekly appointment for residents, and it sits directly on the WaterBus route.
The pattern that has emerged over the last two summers, and is holding this year, is this: farmers market Saturday morning at Mother's Beach, a walk or short WaterBus hop to Fisherman's Village for the free live music that plays weekends from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM at 13723 Fiji Way, and then either the Burton Chace Park concert or an early dinner on the water. None of it requires a car after the market.
What The Next Two Weekends Actually Look Like
A weekend that used to be built around driving to three separate parking lots can now be run entirely on foot and by boat, for under ten dollars in transportation, from any point on the harbor.
For August 8 or August 15, the sequence is straightforward. Farmers market in the morning at Mother's Beach. A midday break at home or on the water. WaterBus from your nearest dock to Fisherman's Village around 2:00 PM to catch the afternoon band. A second WaterBus leg to Burton Chace Park before 7:00 PM with a picnic and low chairs. Concert on the lawn. Boat back after dark, service running until 11:00 PM on Friday and Saturday nights.
For the shoulder weekends after Labor Day, the calendar thins on paper but not in practice. Dance MDR takes over the Friday nights of September 4, 11, 18, and 25 with the WaterBus running on evening-only hours, 5:00 PM to 11:00 PM. Then there is a quiet stretch until October 24 and 25, when Marina Spooktacular reopens the boat for a family Halloween weekend. If you live here, those are the four September Fridays and one October weekend on which the harbor is programmed for you specifically.
The Move To Make Before Summer Closes
The concert closer on August 15 is the last free-and-scheduled harbor night of the season, and the two restaurant sites we are watching, the California Yacht Club space at the old Tony P's dock and the Pita Cafe filing on Washington, are both in the pre-opening stage where the neighborhood's read on them still matters. Walking past both this month, noting what the storefronts look like now, is the kind of thing that pays off in eighteen months when a buyer asks what actually changed on the water.
If you are thinking further ahead than the weekend, and want a read on how these harbor-level shifts are showing up in what specific streets and buildings are trading for, the team at Isabelle Mizrahi and Coleman Eisner tracks Marina del Rey alongside the rest of the coastal Westside. Book an appointment when you want that conversation grounded in your block, not the broader harbor.
