The volleyball nets came down at the pier this weekend. If you've lived in Manhattan Beach through more than one August, you probably expect what comes next: the crowds thin, parking on Highland loosens up, and the corridor between the Strand and Manhattan Avenue goes back to being a place you can actually get a table without a wait. That assumption has held for years. It does not hold this year.
The next three Sundays put more simultaneous pressure on this town's parking and patio seating than the tournament itself did, because three separate calendars that used to run at different times have landed in the same three-week window. A paddleboard race that finishes at the foot of the pier. The final stretch of free concerts at Polliwog Park. And a run of restaurant openings that's turned a few blocks of Manhattan Avenue into a waiting list. None of this shows up as one line on a single calendar. You have to look at three different schedules to see it stack.
What Actually Just Ended
The last two weeks were genuinely loud, and the city knew it. The Manhattan Beach Open by AVP ran its Walk of Fame ceremony on August 13 and finals through August 16 at the pier, and because general admission is free and seating is first come, the city spent weeks warning residents that parking would be scarce, pointing people toward a free shuttle from a lot near Pacific and encouraging anyone headed that way to walk, bike, or rideshare instead. Before that, the Charlie Saikley 6-Man Beach Volleyball Tournament closed pier lots starting July 30, and the International Surf Festival ran across Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, and Torrance from July 27 through August 2.
All three are done. Which is exactly why the instinct to relax is understandable, and exactly why it's wrong for the next three weekends specifically.
The Sunday Nobody Circled
Look at August 23. Two things that residents track separately are happening on the same day, both drawing on the same limited supply of downtown and pier-area parking that was already stretched thin two weeks ago.
That same day, the Catalina Classic Paddleboard Race finishes at the Manhattan Beach Pier, capping its 49th year as paddlers complete the 32-mile open-ocean course from Catalina Island's Isthmus Cove. That draws spectators to the same pier lots that just spent a week absorbing AVP Open overflow.
Then, at 5pm, Concerts in the Park resumes at Polliwog with three Sundays left in its run, and this week's act is the tribute band The Police Academy, on stage through 7. Parking around Polliwog is already tight on an ordinary Sunday. The city's own guidance for the series notes that handicap parking is routed to the Begg Pool lot and that a rideshare pickup zone runs along Manhattan Beach Boulevard, because there simply isn't enough street parking to absorb a full lawn crowd.
What changes on August 23 is that both ends of the day compete for the same finite supply of curbside space, in a way none of the earlier concert Sundays this summer did. A resident who lives, works, or just wants to run errands between the pier and Polliwog on this particular Sunday is looking at something closer to this sequence:
- During the day: Pier lots and nearby streets see extra traffic as spectators gather to watch the paddleboard race finish.
- Late afternoon: Attention shifts inland as concert-goers begin claiming spots near Polliwog ahead of the 5pm start.
- 5 to 7pm: Polliwog fills to capacity, street parking in the surrounding blocks is effectively gone, and the rideshare pickup zone on Manhattan Beach Boulevard becomes the more reliable option.
The Last Three Sundays at Polliwog
The concert series itself has been running every Sunday since July 5, and it closes out on September 6, which lands on Labor Day weekend. The final three dates each carry a different kind of friction than the ones earlier in the summer.
| Date | Act | What makes it different |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 23 | The Police Academy | Shares the day with the Catalina Classic finish at the pier |
| Aug 30 | Stone Soul | Last full weekend before Labor Day travel begins |
| Sept 6 | ABBA LA | Season finale, falling on Labor Day weekend itself |
None of these three behave like a mid-July Sunday concert, when the only competing draw was ordinary beach traffic. Each one has its own reason to expect a fuller lawn and a tighter lot.
The Restaurant Wave Adds Its Own Pressure
While the events calendar stacks up, a separate story is playing out across downtown's restaurant streets that compounds it. Coucou, a French bistro known elsewhere for steak frites, oysters, and an aperitif-heavy cocktail program, is slated to move into the former Nando Trattoria space on Manhattan Avenue, joining Fishing with Dynamite and The Arthur J on the same stretch. A few blocks over on Manhattan Beach Boulevard, Great White, the Venice-born all-day cafe now on its sixth location, has filed for the former Pitfire Pizza space at 401 Manhattan Beach Boulevard, though no opening date has been announced yet.
Saint & Second, from Hofman Hospitality Group, already opened its first South Bay location in Manhattan Village on July 21, a shopping center a short drive from the pier corridor but still part of the same wave of newcomers residents are curious to try. Meanwhile Gum Tree, the longtime local boutique and café, is relocating to a smaller space nearby after losing its previous lease, a reminder that not every retail move downtown is expansion.
None of these openings are tied to a single weekend the way the concerts or the paddleboard race are. But Coucou and Great White both land within the same few blocks that are already tightest for parking during event weekends, meaning the corner of downtown that's hardest to find a curb on Sunday afternoon is also where curious diners are trying to snag a table at something new. Love & Salt, meanwhile, brought back chef Chris Feldmeier, previously of Nancy Silverton's Osteria Mozza, which is its own draw independent of anything new.
What This Means for the Rest of August
The mistake is treating the AVP Open's grandstands coming down as the signal that Manhattan Beach's crowded season is over. What actually happens is that the calendar changes shape instead of shrinking. An outdoor tournament crowd gets replaced by a paddleboard-and-concert crowd on the same blocks, and a restaurant opening wave adds its own reservation pressure on top. The corridor between the pier and Polliwog stays busy through Labor Day, and it eases only once the concert series and the newest restaurants both settle into their normal rhythm sometime in September.
If you're planning around any of the next three Sundays, the practical move is the same one the city already recommends for the big events: walk, bike, or rideshare if you can, and treat the mid-afternoon lull, not the evening, as your best shot at parking near the pier or downtown.
Knowing which Sunday actually matters, and why, is the same kind of granular, block-by-block read on this town that The Bono Group brings to every client who's buying or selling in Manhattan Beach. If a move is somewhere on your horizon, schedule a complimentary strategy call and let's talk about what the market here actually looks like beneath the calendar.
