The Charter Communications Long Beach Sea Festival 2008, a three-month celebration of the Southern California experience highlighted in a series of beach, ocean and summer-fun events, is set to kick off its newest and most ambitious season.
First staged 50 years ago with a mere handful of events, Long Beach Sea Festival 2008 showcases Long Beach as a spectacular place to live in or visit and offers Southern California families— and countless thousands of visitors— an opportunity to turn a day at the beach into much more than just a dip in the ocean.
Long Beach Sea Festival recently began with the start of the Thursday Night Twilight Concerts in the park and the Long Beach-to-Tahiti sailing event and wraps up with the Sept. 5-7 Lobster Festival at Marina Green.
In between, Long Beach Sea Festival offers a slate of almost 100 unique, family-oriented events, ranging from sand castle building to free Moonlight Movies on the Beach to boat racing and virtually everything in between.
Prestigious international sporting events include the current Mayor’s Cup, featuring eight world-ranked female skippers and crews from four nations in a heated sailing competition and the debut of the Pacific Open Water Challenge, a unique, no-holds-barred 5K open water swim, a sport that will make its debut at the upcoming Beijing Games.
For those who enjoy unique celebrations, Long Beach Sea Festival includes a Dragon Boat Festival (July 26-27), Crawfish Festival (Aug. 1-3) and a Tiki Festival/Polynesian Spectacular (Aug. 23-24).
The Long Beach/Catalina Offshore Powerfest presented by Powerboat magazine, featuring water ski race, personal watercraft race and the 97th annual offshore powerboat race will take place July 17-20. The Long Beach Sprint Nationals (circle boat races) are Aug. 2-3.
Music frequently takes center stage during Long Beach Sea Festival with an ongoing schedule of Thursday Night Twilight Concerts in the Park, the Long Beach Municipal Band Concert Series and the Bixby Bluffs Municipal Band Concerts.
And kids can enjoy such events as the Pirate Invasion Faire and Festival (June 28-29), Kids Fishing Rodeo (Aug. 1) and the Capture the Wind Festival (Aug. 16), among others.
In 2007, Long Beach Sea Festival captured the prestigious California Park & Recreation Society (CPRS) award, given to “the agency that represents the finest in recreation programming in California.”
For more information, visit www.longbeachseafestival.com
