San Pedro excited for inaugural L.A. Fleet Week

Hotel reservations are going fast, traffic wonks are huddled over their maps and you can almost hear the strains of “Anchors Aweigh” as San Pedro anticipates its collective end-of-summer Navy salute.

With Thursday’s launch of the official website, the scramble is on to finalize plans for the inaugural L.A. Fleet Week on Labor Day weekend.

“We’re firing on all cylinders, working with a broad spectrum of people to get ready,” said Arley Baker, senior director of communications for the Port of Los Angeles.

The four-day event — Friday through Monday over the Labor Day weekend, Sept. 2-5 — is expected to bring as many as 200,000 to 300,000 visitors to the Harbor Area for tours of active-duty Navy ships, military demonstrations and other attractions and activities.

“Our goal is to do everything we can to facilitate as many ship tours as possible over the weekend,” Baker said.

Since the Nov. 22 aouncement that the U.S. Navy would add Los Angeles to its aual coveted Fleet Week tour, plaing sessions have been ongoing with port, city, law enforcement and community representatives.

Jonathan Williams, president and CEO of the Pacific Battleship Center nonprofit that oversees the Battleship Iowa, is heading up the L.A. Fleet Week Foundation, the public-private nonprofit that has been formed to help raise funds and plan sponsorships for the aual event.

“The goal, at the end of the day, is the Navy likes to have their sailors interacting with the community” and to show the humanitarian service side of the military branch, Williams said.

A free concert on the Iowa is plaed for Saturday night, Sept. 3, as part of the festivities.

Supersized Navy Days

Compared with smaller Navy Days events, Fleet Week, Williams said, is “much more of a festival on a large scale.” San Pedro has been host to Navy Days events over the past decade. But being designated as an official Fleet Week stop every year brings much more prestige.

“The benefit of this ‘supersizing’ of Navy Days and making it a full, bona fide Fleet Week is we will have more vessels and more sailors,” Baker said.

Williams said a demonstration air show is being organized, although high-profile, acrobatic-style air shows may be a year or two away as the new Fleet Week location establishes itself.

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Baker said three visiting ships will berth north of the Battleship Iowa at the World Cruise Terminal, which will serve as the main footprint for the event. Identities of and details about the ships won’t be revealed until the days leading up to the event, at which time the online reservation system will go up for those who want to schedule tour appointments.

Ship tours

Unlike during Navy Days last year, however, visitors can arrive and tour ships without having reservations.

The ships — no show-stopper aircraft carrier is expected to participate this year, but could be added in subsequent years — are scheduled to arrive Aug. 30 and leave Sept. 6.

Signage, shuttles and several parking areas are plaed to help move the crowds, Baker said, with the goal being to spread out events so visitors are coming and going throughout the long weekend rather than all arriving at only specific times.

Security has been a major focus in the plaing, Baker said.

“It’s a paramount undertaking for this kind of event. I could rattle off all the different agencies but there are too many for an article,” he said “There will be a uniformed presence and also other elements that will be both visible and invisible.”

Parking will be available at Berth 46 — the outer harbor — and at 22nd and Miner streets, with shuttles and trollies available.

“We’ll have an extensive community outreach and, hopefully, get the word out so people can start thinking about when they want to come down,” Baker said.

Volunteers needed

The business community, meanwhile, also is putting together packages of specials and discounts to hand out to sailors and their families.

“I’m looking at this as one big opportunity,” said Elise Swanson, president and CEO of the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce. Traffic management, she said, is high on the list. A visitors booth with directories and other information will be set up at Sixth Street and Harbor Boulevard, she added.

Volunteers are still needed to help out, she said.

Other host port cities on the Fleet Week schedule include San Francisco and New York.

Fleet Week, which will be held aually on Labor Day weekend at the Port of Los Angeles, is expected to grow as it becomes more established.

“We’re trying to take baby steps and really look at what we need to do,” Swanson said. “We’ll grow in the future.”

Along with Fleet Week, the eighth aual Conquer the Bridge Labor Day Run will be sponsored as usual on the Vincent Thomas Bridge, with some of the visiting sailors expected to participate.

On Sept. 1, the Thursday before Labor Day weekend, an expanded First Thursday event in downtown San Pedro will feature a performance by the Navy band. Band members also will perform from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 2, the first day of Fleet Week, at the regular farmers market on Sixth Street.

Fleet Week, Williams said, especially with the Conquer the Bridge component that already has become a mainstay, could become L.A.’s go-to celebration for Labor Day weekend in years to come.

“It’ll all work together,” he said. “It’s going to become a Labor Day tradition for all of Los Angeles.”

On the web: www.LAFleetWeek.com and www.LAFleetWeek.org