The Sea Festival Association has recently submitted a formal report to City manager Pat West regarding last summer’s events and their impact on the community – ranging in topics from television and print coverage, to community and economic effects on the city.  The report expands on an October preliminary report filed by Executive Director Chris Pook, and will soon be followed by a complete Economic Impact Study to be conducted by Dr. Joesph Magadinno.

The report mentions the Festival’s extensive media coverage – and therefore attention brought to the city – noting six events reported by the Los Angeles Times, three by the O.C. Register and Daily Breeze, and over thirty by each the Press Telegram and Gazette Newspapers, including to special sections in the PT.  The highlight was three hours of national television coverage of the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball tournament finals on NBC, as well as dozens of other televised events amounting to almost an hour of air time on various networks.  Media coverage of Sea Festival events more than tripled in 2007 over the 2006 event.

The Festival summary notes that 111 events from June 21 – August 30 attracted over 230,000 participants and spectators, with over 42,000 attending from out of town.  The figures show progress made towards some of the Sea Festival’s ultimate goals, which include marketing the city to outsiders, building a “Pride Factor” within the community, and creating “new positive economic impacts for Long Beach.”

Other impacts of the Festival include establishing the city as a new major venue for professional beach volleyball with the staging of the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tournament, and reconfirming Long Beach a the premier west coast sailing venue with the annual Mayor’s Cup and Biennial Transpac Yacht Race.  The Festival also signed Powerboat Magazine to a three-year sponsorship contract that will include the launch of the first Offshore Powerboat Trade Show in the summer of 2008.

In its efforts to provide services to the community, the Department of Parks Recreation and Marine worked with Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe to bring 1,400 disadvantaged youths to the Festival, and organized a day of sailing for over 1,200 youths.  The Sea Festival also worked with the Transpac Yacht Club to take 12 Special Olympic athletes sailing in July.

In the future, the report states, the Sea Festival will continue to move forward on many of its goals, and introduces several new ones as well.  “It would appear that all Event Operators are returning [in 2008] and there are currently 6 additional requests for new events,” the report states.  It calls for greater availability of economical transportation for citizens in West, Central and North Long Beach, more private sector sponsorship, greater understanding of the value of the staging of events in the city, greater enhancement in the media of the partnership between the City of Long Beach and the Sea Festival, and more “strategic Relationship Agreements “similar to those of The Press Telegram and Gazette Newspapers.”