Splashy Waterfront Festival Planned to Show S.D. Is ‘Perfect’ Cup Race Site

A massive waterfront festival to “show the world that San Diego is behind the America’s Cup” will be held on Father’s Day, June 21, at the Broadway and B Street piers on Harbor Drive.

The all-day bayside extravaganza, including parades, concerts, rallies, exhibits and a fireworks display, is expected to attract 100,000 people, festival sponsors announced Thursday.

The co-sponsors, the San Diego Unified Port District and the County of San Diego, unveiled plans for the event at a morning news conference held dockside aboard the Invader, an 82-year-old sailing schooner.

The Father’s Day Waterfront Festival is part of a two-pronged strategy by the San Diego America’s Cup Task Force to bring the 1991 defense of yachting’s most prestigious prize to San Diego.

‘Aimed at Heart and Brain’

County Supervisor Brian P. Bilbray said the group’s strategy is “aimed at the heart and the brain.” Besides Bilbray, who heads the task force, the conference spokesmen included City Council member Bill Cleator, who described San Diego as “the perfect place to have the race.” And task force member Dan Larsen, a San Diego port commissioner, said the festival offered an opportunity to “show off the waterfront to the public in a great way.”

San Diego is vying with other areas to host the the regatta series and benefit from the estimated $1 billion in spinoff economic benefits. Hawaii generally is perceived by Cup watchers as the chief competition. Other cities mentioned as potential sites are San Francisco, Newport Beach and Newport, R.I.

Bilbray indulged in some local boosterism in his comments about San Diego and the importance of the waterfront festival, calling the festival a chance “to show the world” that San Diego County residents are committed to holding the famous regatta here. “Some people think we are a sleeping community,” he said, and added it is “time for sleeping beauty to awake. It is time for mainstream San Diego to get out and . . . welcome the America’s Cup here.”

With the America’s Cup--yachting’s silver holy grail--displayed on the Broadway Pier during the festival, promoters hope to garner at least 50,000 signatures on a petition urging that San Diego be chosen as the regatta’s site. Volunteers will solicit signatures at the festival.

Early-Morning Triathlon

A related triathlon (a combination swimming, bicycle and foot race) will be held before the festival at 6:50 a.m. at Spanish Landing Park near Lindbergh Field. A thousand athletes are expected to participate in the event, which will benefit the St. Vincent de Paul Center.

The festival events will begin at 10 a.m., with a food festival, including a competition among area restaurants; oceanography and maritime exhibits; arts and crafts, and a special Children’s Festival featuring robots, sports celebrities, mimes, puppets and jugglers. These events and exhibits will take place throughout the day.

Nonprofit groups benefiting from food sales will be the Maritime Museum, St. Vincent de Paul Center (a social services agency), San Diego’s America’s Cup Task Force and Sail America Foundation.

A noontime parade, rally and boat parade, featuring the yacht Stars & Stripes, will help launch a 2,300-mile ocean race as two local yachtsmen single-handedly sail 46-foot “cutters” from San Diego to Honolulu. The race, designed to raise money for San Diego’s Trauma Research and Education Foundation, pits Dr. Richard Virgilio, director of trauma medicine at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center, against Sandy Purdon, past executive director of the Sail America Foundation.

The biggest event of the day will be a 4 p.m. mini-parade from the B Street Pier to Broadway Pier, where a rally will be held at 5 p.m. Military bands, flag teams, Scouts, cheerleaders, broadcast personalities and other VIPs will join the parade and rally.

Waterfront festival organizers say park-and-ride service will be available at Seaport Village and Horton Plaza shopping centers, with buses shuttling between the two piers and the shopping centers. Arrangements also are being made for buses to carry baseball fans with tickets between the festival and stadium, where the Padres play San Francisco.

The final event of the day will be a fireworks display at 9 p.m. over the bay.