Festivities Return To City For Annual Summer Series

By Carla M. Collado
Staff Writer

It’s almost summer. In Long Beach, that means it’s almost time for another round of free community events hosted by Alfredo’s Beach Club as part of the annual Charter Communications Sea Festival.

This year’s Sea Festival will feature the usual suspects, from the Pier Daze Pirate Invasion and Faire to the Great Sand Sculpture Contest. Some new events will debut this summer too, including the Fourth of July Party on the Pier and the Taste of the Coast.

First off is the Pier Daze Pirate Invasion and Faire from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on June 28 and 29 at the Belmont Veterans Memorial Pier.

The festival will feature pirate shows, pirate ships attacking the pier and taking “hostages” (for $25 rides on the pirate ships), a pirate costume contest, actors from Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies, a Kids’ Treasure Hunt, a sword fighting show, Capt. Ray Kula’s Pyrat Band and “living history” pirate encampments on the beach.

“We see this turning into a real big event in the future for Long Beach,” said Alfredo’s Beach Club Owner Fred Khammar.

Next up is the first-ever Party on the Pier on July 4 at the Belmont Veterans Memorial Pier. From noon until the fireworks (around 9:50 p.m.), people can enjoy live music, a fish fry, beer and wine gardens, barbecue food (for a fee) and boat rides on the Shoreliner ($10). They also can reserve seating for the fireworks show ahead of time for $10.

Moonlight Movies on the Beach will run every Tuesday evening from July 8 through Aug. 19 at the end of the Granada Beach launch ramp. Cartoons start at dusk and are followed by the featured movie. Movies scheduled to play include “E.T. the Extra Terrestrial,” “Dr. Seuss’s The Cat in the Hat,” “The Sting,” “Vertigo,” “An American Tail,” “Wizard of Oz” and “Casablanca.” There will be free parking and free popcorn, along with barbecue food (for a fee).

There also will be movies geared towards adults playing at the Downtown Marina Green, Cherry Beach at Alfredo’s and Alamitos Bay Beach at Bayshore Drive.

Also making a comeback to Sea Festival will be the annual Kids’ Fishing Rodeo from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (new time) on Aug. 1 at the Belmont Veterans Memorial Pier. Youth ages 16 and younger fish for free and just need to bring their own rod and reel.

Free bait, snacks, instruction and prizes will be provided. Children can either pre-register online at www.longbeachseafestival.com or register at the event.

The Taste of the Coast event debuts from 3 to 7 p.m. Aug. 3 at the Belmont Veterans Memorial Pier. It is a fundraiser for Long Beach Kids’ Connection featuring more than 30 area restaurants offering samples of their food, live music and dancing, beer and wine tastings, live event painting and activities for children.

Tickets are $50 for adults and $10 for children younger than 12 years old and can be pre-ordered online at www.lbkidsconnection.org.

The Great Sand Sculpture Contest will return from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Aug. 9 on Granada Beach and will feature roughly 20 competing teams. Sand creations will be available for public viewing from 2 to 4 p.m. That Friday about 1,000 youth will build sand castles and other creations on the beach for fun.

The Go Fly a Kite Festival, Blo-kart Festival and Kite Surfing Challenge will all be part of the Capture the Wind Festival from noon to 4 p.m. on Aug. 15 on Granada Beach.

There will be kite surfing demos, Blo-kart demos and races in the parking lot, kite vendors (sponsored by the Long Beach Airport), a Kids’ Fun Zone and music by Blue Steel.

Children will get free kites and have the chance to learn how to build and fly a kite at the event.

This year’s Tiki Beach Festival from sunrise to sunset on Aug. 23 and 24 on Granada Beach will not include a main luau. Instead, it will be a “Ho’olaulea” featuring traditional food, arts, crafts, tiki carvers, a Polynesian-themed movie and more.

One of the days (yet to be determined) will be for youth of all ages and will feature area youth groups performing traditional island dancing and a luau for children.

Khammar said the main reason he eliminated the luau was because it was too expensive and tickets for the Tiki Beach Festival were getting too pricey.

“I started all of these events to have fun, for me and the community,” he said, pointing out that it is the eighth year Alfredo’s organizes these Sea Festival events. “They’ve grown but they still need to not be about money. They need to be about community involvement and fun.”

He added that Long Beach residents should take full advantage of his free Sea Festival events, especially at a time when gasoline costs almost $5 a gallon and people don’t want to drive very far.

“Nobody does what we do down here (in Long Beach),” Khammar said. “Here are these great events, support them.”

Gazette Newspapers is the presenting sponsor for all of the Sea Festival community events hosted by Alfredo’s.

For more information about these summer Sea Festival events, visit www.longbeachseafestival.com or call 434-1542.D HEIGHT=39>