La Jolla Kiwanis Club is “inheriting” two popular public events – Concerts by the Sea and the La Jolla Cove (Rough Water) Swim – which were discontinued before the pandemic and are being revived.
“In December 2019, I moved The La Jolla Cove Swim (formerly the La Jolla Rough Water Swim) to the Kiwanis Club of La Jolla because I knew it was the right home for [the swim],” said Judy Adams Halter, who revived the swim after it had been canceled in consecutive years due to pinniped and bird waste buildup.
“Kiwanis Club runs wonderful events for our community and then directs the proceeds to worthy causes in San Diego. They are organized and mission-driven to do good.”
The La Jolla Cove Swim will be held on Sunday, Sept. 11 this year with one- and three-mile swims. All proceeds will benefit the Prevent Drowning Foundation of San Diego, plus providing swim lessons for underserved youth, as well as partially funding the return of La Jolla’s Concerts by the Sea, a series of outdoor concerts to be held in Ellen Browning Scripps Park above La Jolla Cove starting this summer.
The return of La Jolla Concerts by the Sea, discontinued after its 33rd season in 2016 because of funding problems, is being spearheaded by Howard Zatkin.
“I’ve lived in La Jolla 55 years and music is a love of mine,” said Zatkin, who attended the summer concert series previously. “We’ve got all the permits needed and the bands together and the sound guy.”
Zatkin said both returning public events, the swim and the concert series, are cross-pollinating.
“My neighbor, Judy Adams Halter, was reviving the swim and she knew I was trying to revive the concerts,” he said. “So she offered to fund it (concerts).”
Zatkin added that both events were placed under the umbrella of Kiwanis because of the club’s longstanding stability and enduring commitment to community causes.
The bands that had been set to perform when the summer concert series was canceled – Full Strength, The Mighty Untouchables, Sue Palmer and Her Motel Swing Band and The Heroes – are all returning on Sunday afternoons on July 17, 24, and 31, as well as the last concert on Aug. 7.
“I chose well-known, really good bands because we wanted to make sure our first year back was really top-of-the-line entertainment, and it is,” Zatkin said adding, “What amazes me is how many people, 60 to 80, come down to the Cove to dance in front of the stage.”
A change this time around is that Sunday concerts will be held later in the day, from 3:30-5:30 p.m., to give families more time to get to the events and enjoy them.
La Jolla Concerts by the Sea ran for 33 years starting in 1984, only to go out of business after the 2016 season. The popular summertime event had been in financial trouble, losing money for years, as well as having trouble finding – and keeping – sponsors. Only seven of 2016’s final eight summer concerts had sponsors.
Past Concerts by the Sea chair Shirleymae Davis previously said the nonprofit gradually got squeezed over the years by increasing City demands, like doubling the number of portable toilets and requiring them to use their own dumpster, as well as requiring concessions to be sold by vendors, and not the nonprofit putting on the concerts.
The annual high-profile, all-ages swim event held every September, was canceled in 2014 due to construction at the La Jolla Cove Lifeguard Station. That was the first time since 1959 that the annual swim fest, drawing 2,000 participants from all over the nation and the world, had been canceled. The Rough Water Swim resumed in 2015, only to be canceled again in 2016 due to high bacteria counts in the Cove. It’s name was later changed after being revived by Adams Halter.
“I will be the co-chair of [swim] on Sept. 11 with Rob Housden,” said Adams Halter. “We opened registration on Jan. 1 and have 164 registered participants. We are adding the 3-mile Jewel Swim to the 1-mile event. The 3-mile swim will be capped at 100 and the 1-mile swim will be capped at 600. We are looking forward to another wonderful event.”
To register, go to thelajollacoveswim.org.
