Overview

Long Beach Sea Festival Roots date back to Early 1900’s

While the “Long Beach Sea Festival” did not actually become a functioning entity until the early 1970s, events that led to its formation have been around Long Beach since the days of President William Howard Taft!

In 1911, with Taft in the White House, the very first Offshore PowerBoat race in North America took place from Long Beach to Avalon. It was a leisurely event -- a two-day race -- with an enjoyable evening spent in Avalon before the return trip the next day. This year, that almost-a-century-old powerboat race is a key part of Sea Festival’s Offshore Powerfest Weekend, in July, which also includes the annual Catalina Island Waterski Race and Jet Ski Race!

Another popular Sea Festival event, The Kid’s Fishing Rodeo, dates back to 1915 when the original ‘wooden’ Grand Avenue Pier (now Belmont Pier) was built. In 1933, Long Beach held its first Sand Castle Competition and in 1948 the first Long Beach-to-Catalina Ski Race took place!!

In 1971, the then-Long Beach Convention and News Bureau decided to combine all the events under one umbrella – Sea Festival – incorporating all the traditional events plus some 15 new ones that included swimming, sailing, rowing, lifeguard competitions and Speed and Drag Boat racing at Marine Stadium.

The highlight of Sea Festival in those days was a dynamic Fourth of July celebration that came complete with an over-the-water air show – starring the famed Blue Angels, no less! – and a magnificent fireworks show in the heart of the bay, witnessed by hundreds of thousands who flocked to Long Beach’s shoreline.

The eighties and nineties saw a decline in the Sea Festival, but individual events soldiered on primarily under the stewardship of the City of Long Beach’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine.

In 2004, then-City Manager Jerry Miller suggested to the City Council that Sea Festival be restructured and turned over to a ‘Private Sector Not for Profit” company to bring all the events under one single management team. One year later, the new ‘Sea Festival Association of Long Beach, Inc.’ was formed as a 501-3c California not-for-profit Corporation with an independent board of directors comprising personnel from both the private and public Sector.

In its first year of operation the new company authorized some 35 different events, compared to more than 100 in 2007. The daily operation of the Long Beach Sea Festival is today under the guidance of CEO Bob Seagren and his staff at RUN Racing, which also stages the popular Long Beach Marathon in October.