RASA’s beloved Santa Monica Pier festival is back for its fourth installment, with an Afro-house headliner, a world-first live debut, and a boardwalk full of reasons to stay past midnight.
Written by Eric B. Thornton
There are a handful of spots in Los Angeles where geography just does the work for you. The Santa Monica Pier, a world famous landmark, with the Pacific spilling off its western edge, the Ferris wheel spinning above Pacific Park, and the old Route 66 terminus a few feet away — is one of them. And on Saturday, May 30, RASA is using it the way it deserves: as a backdrop for the fourth installment of Pier Play, the only dance music festival of its kind on the pier, now firmly established as one of LA’s most-anticipated warm-season events.
production takes over. Photo: RASA / Pier Play 2025.
This year carries weight beyond the standard annual announcement. Pier Play 2026 will host the global debut of Âme Live Presents…, a bold new chapter for the Berlin electronic duo that expands their live show format to include guest vocalists performing alongside them. For the world premiere, Âme is bringing out RHYE as the first guest under that banner.
If you know either act in isolation, you already understand why that pairing sounds like something you don’t miss: Âme’s deep, liquid house production has been a dance floor staple since the Innervisions era. Together, at the edge of the ocean, at a festival built around color and joy, this is the kind of programming that turns an event into a story.
Âme’s deep house production colliding with RHYE’s atmospheric vocals at the edge of the Pacific. This is the kind of programming that turns an event into a story
The lineup around that headlining moment is anything but filler. AMÉMÉ, the Brooklyn-based Afro-house artist behind the One Tribe collective, brings a floor- shaking blend of tribal percussion, ethereal vocals, and deep house pulse that’s earned him a devoted following on both coasts. He’s exactly the right energy for an open-air pier stage — warm enough for the golden hour crowd, relentless enough for the long end of the night. Awen and Xinobi back-to-back should generate some memorable moments, while Notre Dame — the Parisian producer who’s been on a remarkable run lately with remixes for Lenny Kravitz, Bedouin, and Röyksopp, and a new label called Paranormal Society — rounds out the bill alongside rising talent Darina Chuz.
Beyond the music, Pier Play’s brand activation ecosystem is one of the more thoughtfully assembled in the event space. AlphaTheta Pioneer DJ is running a hands-on learn-to-DJ station. Psilly Goose, the functional mushroom beverage brand, will be on pour for those keeping it sober but social. The -196 Lounge brings Suntory’s freeze-crush vodka seltzer; Hornitos Tequila has a full bar with a “Soft Heat Paloma Pink Edit” that sounds like a Pier Play summer in a glass. VIP guests get a Dear Caviar tasting, cannolis from Delicious Minis, and fresh cuts from KYE — Mark the Barber. Street artist Chris Riggs will be doing live car painting on-site — which makes for either a great spectator experience or a memorable afternoon depending on whether it’s your car.
Doors open at 3:30pm. In Pier Play’s most reliable trick, that gives you time to be on the pier while there’s still sky, the Ferris wheel, the ocean light, the whole boardwalk thing, before the production takes over and the night turns into something else entirely. Tier 5 passes are in their final stretch. Get in before they’re gone.
Event Details
Pier Play 2026 | Saturday, May 30, 2026 | Doors 3:30PM | Santa Monica Pier,
Santa Monica, CA
Tickets | Follow Pier Play on Instagram | RASA