The Long Beach attraction had a number of sold-out music festivals in 2018.
During its three decades at sea, the Queen Mary made 1,001 transatlantic crossings before it was permanently moored in Long Beach in 1967.
But there was no quiet, laid-back retirement ahead for the vessel.
Since its arrival more than 50 years ago, the ship has been a busy events venue and hotel, hosting dozens of concerts through the years as well as annual events such as Christmas-themed happenings and Dark Harbor during Halloween.
And now things have stepped up even more thanks to a year-old partnership with concert promoter Goldenvoice. The ship has sailed into another phase of its retirement, becoming a musical hot spot that held seven multi-act shows in 2018, attracting a new generation of fans to the 82-year-old ocean-liner.
“I think it’s been more successful than we imagined,” said Paul Billings, vice president and general manager of Goldenvoice.
“I think you would be hard pressed to find any location that has done seven mini-festivals anywhere,” he added.
Los Angeles-based Goldenvoice is responsible for festivals around the country, including the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and Stagecoach Country Music Festival, which attract hundreds of thousands of people to Indio in April. It also operates Los Angeles venues such as the Fonda Theatre, El Rey Theatre and the Shrine Auditorium. The company, which is part of live entertainment behemoth AEG, promotes more than 1,400 concerts a year in California, Nevada, Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii and Canada.
In late 2017, Goldenvoice made musical waves in Long Beach when it announced that it was teaming up with Urban Commons, the Queen Mary’s leaseholder, to exclusively put on concerts at the ship’s 15,000-person-capacity Waterfront Park.
Previously, concerts there were produced by the ship as well as a variety of promoters, including Goldenvoice.
No major concerts have been held on board the 4,000-person capacity ship, which has recently undergone the first of many crucial multimillion-dollar repairs that may stretch for years. But with the ship serving as a majestic background, Goldenvoice’s seven mini music festivals have included three new events and four returning shows.
“As we started putting these shows on sale, we quickly realized that there was market demand for these shows in the Long Beach and O. C. area. Several of these sold out the day we put them on sale,” Billings said.
All but one of the concerts, November’s Tropicália Music and Taco Festival, sold out in 2018.
Two other concerts previously produced by the Queen Mary, the Shipkicker Country Music Festival and an alt-rock event called Rock the Queen, did not return in 2018.
While there wasn’t much of a difference in the number of music shows put on at the ship, there’s been a big difference culturally.
The partnership has put the Queen Mary at the center of Southern California’s music scene with concerts that mix relevant up and coming artists such as 18-year-old Baltimore rapper Jayy Grams and East Los Angeles-based Latin punk act Thee Commons with well-established acts including Snoop Dogg, Morrissey and cumbia stars Los Ángeles Azules.
