by Kevin Cody
Mike Bell, the wizard behind the Hermosa Beach Labor Day, and Memorial Day Weekend Fiestas for the past three decades, announced his retirement as the fiestas’ manager this week.
“It’s time to spend more time with my family,” Bell said. “But I wanted to make sure we brought the event back to its pre-pandemic numbers before passing the torch. And we did that with this past Memorial Day Fiesta,” he said.
“The Fiesta is now in very capable hands with Chamber Director Jessica Accamando at the helm.”
Bell started with Hermosa Fiestas as its music sound engineer in 1993. He became the fiestas’ manager in 2005.
Under his guidance, the Labor Day and Memorial Day Weekend Fiestas grew to become the largest chamber of commerce street fairs in California, featuring over 200 arts, and crafts vendors, and over 100,000 weekend visitors.
(The Hermosa Beach Chamber recently announced it will no longer produce the Labor Day weekend fiesta, which draws smaller crowds than the Memorial Day weekend fiesta.)
Bell said he wanted his fiestas to be like a weekend at Disneyland.
“We offered carnival rides for kids, craft booths where the mom could shop, and a beer garden for dad. At the end of the day, everyone could gather for a selection of good food,” he said.
“The goal was to grow the fair incrementally, and not make huge changes,” he said.
The biggest challenge he said, was closing down the downtown streets, which was unpopular with some residents.
His El Segundo-based Bell Events Services produces a dozen other city events, among them Redondo Riviera Village Festival, the North Redondo SpringFest, The Rancho Palos Verdes Country Fair, the Fountain Valley Summer Festival, and Anaheim’s Pearson Park Amphitheater.
Bell will also continue to manage the Hermosa Beach St. Patrick’s Day Parade. And he will return to his original Hermosa Fiesta role sound manager.
“I loved the fiestas. They will always have a special place in my heart. But it reached a point where I felt the business was running me, instead of me running the business,” Bell said. ER
