The Beach Boys' Epcot Slot Went Ahead, Without Any Beach Boys

The Beach Boys' booking at Epcot, the Walt Disney World park in Florida, was kept, but under a new name: "John Stamos and the California Sound." Rolling Stone reported that the show was the first in the group's 65-year history as a touring act with no Beach Boys members on stage.

The act is the Beach Boys' touring band plus longtime special guest John Stamos. None of the group's members are part of it. The band has played more than 7,000 shows as a touring act, and none of them before this one lacked a member of the group.

Epcot's Eat to the Beat concert series runs three shortened sets a day for park guests, beginning at 5:30 pm, 6:45 pm and 8:00 pm. At each Epcot show, John Stamos and the California Sound played nine songs over 30 minutes.

Four of those songs were by the Beach Boys: "California Girls," "Kokomo," "Forever," and "Fun, Fun, Fun." The rest of the set was covers: "Suspicious Minds," "Devil With the Blue Dress On/Good Golly Miss Molly," "Hippy Hippy Shake," "Wipe Out," and "Les Poissons" from The Little Mermaid.

The change comes as the Beach Boys have cancelled most of their concerts over the past few months. The group's touring has been disrupted while founding member Mike Love battles a medical ailment. The same report says that Hard Rock Live in Bristol, Virginia, cancelled a Beach Boys show set for 13 November. That date was the last show on the group's calendar for 2026.

Looking further ahead, the latest date booked for the group is a makeup date on 8 May 2027 at the River Cree Resort and Casino in Alberta, Canada. A makeup date is a rescheduled show, here standing in for an earlier date that did not go ahead.

For the people who came to the Epcot stage, the set was short, with nine songs in half an hour, three times a day. For the band's touring crew, the cancellations mean fewer working dates through the end of the year.