The "Skate Spot," the new skate park at the Marine Avenue Park, opened this weekend to great fanfare, drawing hundreds of participants with a celebration of music, art, food, and skating.

The festive event featured a concert at the Manhattan Beach Art Center Parking lot with live music from Steve Alba's PowerFlex 5, Charlie Chan and the SOBs, and Los Savages; as well as an opening reception for the SOMOS LOCOS art exhibit.

Brad Jacobson of Civic Couch did a preview of the skate park and series of interviews, featured in the video below.

Newly elected town council member Steve Napolitano spoke of getting pulled over by the police for skateboarding in his youth. "That was the story of Manhattan Beach for many years - no place legally to skate," he said. "Where could you skate? You didn't have any place to skate. Now we do - the Skate Spot."

"I've gotten a lot of positive response," said Ish Medrano, project supervisor. "I typically get a wide range of responses when we do these high-profile type projects, but this one has been overwhelmingly supportive of the project."

Medrano added: "It looks like Christmas in the kids' eyes when they come up and see what we've got."