Festival of Sail presented by LAMI

Southern California tall ships help spread the welcome among visiting sailors of LA Fleet Week 2019.

The Los Angles Maritime Institute will add to the general celebration of LA Fleet Week 2019, honoring the heritage of sail and sail exploration in Southern California, August 30 through September 2, 2019, 8:30am to 7:30pm.

Activities will center in the San Pedro’s downtown harbor cut. The Irving Johnson and Exy Johnson, the city’s official tall ships and tall ship ambassadors will offer free deck tours and sailor lore. The latest addition to the fleet, the American Pride, will be there for her first Festival of Sail. In the afternoons the ships will leave to docks to engage in mock cannon battles with each other near the Los Angeles Light. Tickets for the cannon battles are available at the venue and via the links below.

Surrounding the Downtown Harbor will be several nautically themed exhibits, including a rope-making demonstration, knot tying, face painting, a representation from the local Sea Scouts Ship, a LAMI information station, and a touch-museum of traditional maritime apparatus.

“Seafaring is an overlooked but crucial part of Southern California’s history, culture and development,” said Bruce Heyman, LAMI’s executive director. “And important because so many traditional ships like ours now serve an educational mission, helping young people prepare for life. We are happy to join in this celebration of beautiful maritime craft and the men and women who sail them.”

The festival will also include revolution-era re-enactors, who will be on hand to impart a historic tone to the proceedings and answer questions about themselves and their era.

Admission to the festival area, exhibits and ships decks will be free. Thanks to a generous donor, 166 tickets for cannon battles and harbor cruises will be free to veterans and their families. Vouchers will be available in Veteran’s Village in the main Fleet Week thoroughfare. Our way of honoring and saying thanks to our Veterans!