Long Beach's free summer concert season comes to a close Friday evening at El Dorado Park West, where the Southern California funk and R&B tribute band REMIX takes the stage from 6 to 8 p.m. Pre-concert activities, including face painting and family games, kick off at 5 p.m. near the corner of Studebaker Road and Willow Street, giving families time to settle in before the music starts.
The free End of Summer Concert, hosted by Long Beach Parks, Recreation and Marine, marks the official finale of the city's 2026 summer civic event schedule, according to Long Beach City. The department invites families and friends to attend the show at El Dorado Park West, located at 2800 N. Studebaker Rd., where REMIX will perform 1980s and 1990s funk, R&B and retro dance music. Per the city's press release announcing the event, the department hosted 76 free and low-cost community events during its 2026 summer season, a slate that included Movies in the Park, nature center concerts and seven City of Long Beach Soccer in the LBC watch parties.
Who's Taking the Stage
REMIX describes itself as one of Southern California's hottest '80s and '90s funk, R&B and retro dance tributes, and the Norwalk-based sextet performs entirely live, with no backing tracks or pre-recorded vocals, according to the band's own site, RemiX. The group covers hits from artists such as Prince, Earth, Wind & Fire and Bell Biv DeVoe, and it holds the distinction of serving as an official Funk and R&B band for the Los Angeles Dodgers while also performing frequently at Disneyland Resort.
The Friday concert unfolds against the backdrop of a park with its own recent history of civic investment. El Dorado Park West completed a $10 million, 22-month environmental restoration of its duck pond in June 2024, adding a leak-proof liner, a rebuilt pump house, expanded wetlands and recycled-water irrigation for the neighboring golf course, the Long Beach Post reported. The project had faced weather and environmental delays before reopening that summer.
A Park With Deep Roots
El Dorado Regional Park itself spans more than 600 acres and traces its origins to the 1950s and 1960s, when the City of Long Beach acquired the land from the Bixby family, shaping its artificial hills with soil excavated during construction of the San Gabriel Freeway, according to Wikipedia. The park later gained international prestige when Area II served as the official archery competition venue for the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympic Games.
Friday's performance also sits within a much longer local tradition of free outdoor music. Long Beach is home to the Long Beach Municipal Band, founded in 1909 and recognized as the oldest city-funded municipal band in the United States, which completed its 117th summer season in 2026, per LBC Vibe. That band plays weekly summer concerts across five local parks, building a century-long civic habit of bringing residents together through free park music.
The Department Behind the Show
Long Beach Parks, Recreation and Marine oversees a sprawling operation to make events like Friday's possible, managing 166 parks, 26 community centers, 3,100 acres of parkland and the nation's largest municipally operated marina system. The department runs on an annual budget of roughly $74 million and expands its staff to nearly 700 workers during peak summer operations to support camps, pools and public events.
Even as the outdoor concert series wraps up, the department isn't slowing down. It opened registration in August for more than 700 fall classes, sports leagues and enrichment programs across its community centers, offerings meant to serve residents of all ages from toddlers to seniors as the city shifts from summer outdoor gatherings into its fall programming season.
Long Beach has hosted similar free seasonal concerts at El Dorado Park West in recent years, including a summer kickoff show featuring Pop Vinyl Band. Friday's REMIX performance closes out that same seasonal cycle, giving residents one more free night of music before the city's parks calendar turns toward fall.
