This weekend, people will descend upon the small and funky Island of Galveston for music, surfing and fun as the sixth annual La Izquierda Surf & Music Festival gets underway.
The two-day festival is scheduled for Friday and Saturday with events all day long split between the beach and the park across the street from the Seawall.
“It’s coming in full speed ahead,” says organizer, co-founder and performer Robert Kuhn. Every year Kuhn and his team learn something about adjusting the festival for fans and organizers.
“There’s so many anxieties that arise but I know that there’s going to be a lot of musicians and a lot of energy descending on the little island of Galveston that weekend. People have been really planning and putting a lot of energy towards making this thing happen and our team has just gotten bigger and bigger and the awareness throughout the community and the city of Galveston has gotten bigger and bigger as well.”
The lessons learned and applied to this year’s festival can be summed up in the words of Houston legend Archie Bell: tighten up. In previous years, the festival ran for three days with Sunday devoted to the big name artist of the year.
Kuhn says it was always a struggle to get people to stay through Sunday evening as they were usually getting ready to return to their work weeks. Also, by avoiding having a bigger name headliner on Sunday, organizers were able to concentrate on hiring performers closer to home.
“We’re really focusing on hyper local bands,” says Kuhn. “People that don’t have to travel so far. We have a lot of Austin bands, New Orleans, Houston and Galveston bands. There’s so much good music around here it’s just great to highlight and showcase that and let our friends come together to jam versus paying a big name or someone coming from far away.”
This year will include a wide range of performances with New Orleans funk rockers Deltaphonic and Houston’s own Bayou City Funk.
The lineup also leans heavily on psych rock with bands including Galveston’s India Tiger In Texas and Austin’s The Dead Canyon Family Reunion and The Point. A beach festival wouldn’t be complete without some reggae vibes with performances by Dem Roots, Soulfiya and Ojos Rojos.
Kuhn’s own band Galvezton will perform along with local rockers After Mañana, Shame On Me and Flower Graves will also take the stage along with a great array of singer songwriters like Britney Doyal, Tyson Webb, Kevin Anderson and Austin Gaston.
The festival will end with a performance in the park by Austin’s Superfonicos, winner of this year’s Austin Music Award for Best Latin.
In previous years, the bands would perform throughout the day on stages on the beach during the surf competitions and in the park festival grounds, but this year organizers staggered performances in a way that splits the day between the beach and the park.
“It used to be that people were moving back and forth between the two and it seemed like it was kinda taking people away a little bit from both sides,” describes Kuhn. They hope this will keep attendees able to watch the entertaining surf competition while checking out the bands.
Sponsors Turtlebox Bluetooth Speakers are also on hand on the beach side stage, lessening the requirement of a large and noisy generator out on the beach.
This year, along with food vendors, La Izquierda has its own cook team serving crawfish, hamburgers and other offerings for attendees. Activities for kids are also on the programming.
Kuhn and his team created this event to not only bring people to Galveston, but also toc elebrate Gulf Coast culture and the people who live on the island year round.
“I always feel like what we’re doing is setting off a big firework as big as we can and making a big noise and a big bright thing for people to see what we’re doing and feel good about living a natural life and appreciating what we’re doing in Galveston.”
La Izquierda Surf & Music Festival will take place from Friday May 2 to Saturday May 3, Beach Central, 2102 Seawall Boulevard. All-day event. $25-100.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.
