O.C. Board Fest Moves Out of O.C.

The Board in O.C. festival on May 6 will play to a sellout crowd of 10,000 fans, making it the biggest rock show ever to focus on bands that have sprung from Orange County’s punk-alternative movement.

However, Board in O.C. is no longer happening in O.C.

Originally planned for an athletic field at UC Irvine, the 10-hour festival has been moved to a Los Angeles County site, the Olympic Velodrome on the campus of Cal State Dominguez Hills in Carson.

Promoter Paul Tollett said his company, Goldenvoice, decided to move the show after UC Irvine officials began to exhibit “major cold feet” last week over whether the rock festival would be too large and risky an undertaking.

The event, which will feature skateboarding exhibitions and performances by such popular Orange County and Long Beach acts as Social Distortion, Sublime and No Doubt, had sold out within 2 1/2 weeks after tickets went on sale last month.

Tollett said he considered finding another outdoor site in Orange County, then decided it would be simplest to move the show to the Velodrome, where Goldenvoice already had scheduled a similar Board in South Bay punk-alternative program (with different bands) for May 7.

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Lance MacLean, a UCI official who helps coordinate student activities, including concerts, said campus police and other university officials had raised concerns about security and insurance matters. Given those doubts, MacLean and Tollett said, they mutually agreed that Board in O.C. should be relocated.

MacLean said that the show’s transfer should not preclude the possibility of future large outdoor concerts at UC Irvine, where two indoor venues, the 2,000-capacity Crawford Hall and the 5,200-capacity Bren Events Center, have provided an occasional home for high-profile punk and alternative-rock bands. MacLean said that the campus’s outdoor track-and-field stadium might be suitable for a future big event.

Tollett said that Goldenvoice has not received any complaints since the news of the change of venue for Board in O.C. was announced last week on KROQ-FM, but ticket buyers who want refunds can get them at the place of purchase before May 6.