(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
The party is back on in Manhattan Beach the weekend of Oct. 7-8 with the return of Old Hometown Fair, an annual event that is highlighted by a 10K run the first morning and two days of the legendary beer garden.
To be sure, this is no small-town, boring family festival. It is exactly what Manhattan Beach and the entire Los Angeles South Bay is all about: fun. The 10K goes through downtown and north through the “tree section” and finishes the final couple of miles on The Strand, the concrete path that goes parallel to the beach. The views there are spectacular and the run in enhanced by bands and cheering people along the way.
The run finishes at the Manhattan Beach Pier and that’s when the real fun begins, for many runners (young and old) bolt to Shellback Tavern for 28-degree draft beers or its locally famous Bloody Marys. This early socializing sets the tone for the beer garden, which opens at Noon about a 10-minute walk up the hill.
To many – especially the South Bay singles – the Hometown Fair beer garden is the Hometown Fair. There’s not much to it but as with anything, it’s the people that make it fun. By 2 p.m., there’s a line to get into it and every fun and single person within a 20-mile radius is there pounding down beers, laughing with friends and (let’s face it) trying to pick up other single people.
A Hometown Fair beer garden tradition is also that people who once lived in the area come back into town for it. Sundays, as one might expect, things are a bit more slow to start, as people start wandering back in around 2 and by 3 it’s raging again. There is also a very mellow wine garden, especially when compared to the roars coming from the beer garden. There is a band, too, within earshot of both, but it’s an afterthought.
Oh, and around the beer garden are food and craft booths, which are for families.
This is a do-not-miss happenig and one of the top things to do this weekend in Los Angeles.
Leave a Reply