‘Community festival down on the docks’ honors San Pedro fishermen

The San Pedro fishing fleet will be moored at the commercial dock south of Ports O’ Call.

And right alongside the boats, carnival rides will be whirling and turning, while people inside colorful canvas-topped booths will be vending food and enticing passers-by to try their luck at midway games.

“This is a community festival down on the docks,” and it celebrates San Pedro’s ties “to the fishing industry, which played a major role in this community,” said Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Leron Gubler, who was gearing up for the annual weekend “Fishermen’s Fiesta” that starts tonight.

“Many of the people who live in San Pedro today are the offspring and descendants of the original fishermen who came here from Europe,” he said. “This is a chance for them to get down to their roots.”

In the glory days of the fishing industry, the fiesta was an extravaganza of several hundred decorated boats parading on the water before a crowd of 200,000.

The fiesta was started after World War II to celebrate a successful year of fishing and welcome in a new and, it was hoped, good season with a blessing of the fleet by a prelate of the Roman Catholic Church.

These days, it puts the spotlight on more than 20 community organizations--ranging from the Lions Club to the Harbor Free Clinic--that sell food and conduct carnival games, raising money for their groups. About 30,000 people attend over the three days.

“We want people to have a lot of fun and spend a little money so that community organizations can do their work,” said Jess Robinson, a former fiesta chairman.

Gubler said the original fiesta, which received funds from the city and county of Los Angeles, became one of the most colorful fishermen’s events in the country. “The boats looked like Rose Parade floats,” he said.

In the late 1960s, however, rising costs, along with a church-state dispute over the blessing of the fleet at a publicly funded celebration, led to abandonment of the fiesta for more than a decade.

It was revived in 1981 as a community festival, but without the elements that had caused earlier problems. Fees paid by participating vendors cover the fiesta’s $20,000 budget, and the blessing of the fleet is done from a fishing boat in the channel, not from Port of Los Angeles property.

Compared to the palmy days when 300 boats put out to sea, the fiesta is staged against the gloomy reality of today’s fishing industry, which has been hard hit by lower-priced, subsidized foreign fish products.

Frank Iacono, vice president of United Food Processors--one of the two remaining canneries in the area--said there are no more than 50 boats today, adding that the health of the industry “goes up and down.”

Despite all of the changes, the blessing of the fishing boats--a colorful religious ceremony in which holy water is sprinkled from the bow of a ship--is still the highlight of the weekend.

The blessing will be given Sunday at 1 p.m. by the Most Rev. Carl A. Fisher, auxiliary bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Earlier in the day, at 10:30 a.m., Mary Star of the Sea Church in San Pedro will celebrate a fishermen’s Mass.

The blessing of fishermen has roots in the New Testament, according to Msgr. Patrick Gallagher, pastor of Mary Star of the Sea. He said Christ’s disciples were fishermen, and the connection between the church and the sea has been carried down through the ages.

“In the fishing industry, there are great blessings, but great dangers, injuries and losses at sea,” he said. “People wanted to get together as fishermen and pray to God that he would bless them and protect them, and they wanted to give him thanks for good catches of fish.”

This year’s fiesta is putting an emphasis on musical variety and family entertainment, with non-stop stage performances by 11 groups Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The bill includes country music and jazz, Dixieland and ‘50s sounds, barbershop harmony and mariachis.

The gourmet highlight will be the cioppino competition at noon Saturday, where about 10 amateur and professional chefs will vie for prizes in cooking up the savory Italian seafood stew.

Contest chairman Steve Cole, who said his reward is unlimited sampling rights, said the contest always produces a wide mix of tastes and a variety of seafood ingredients. “It’s the catch of the day” that goes into it, whether that’s halibut, rock cod or clams, said Cole.

Four food experts will judge the results, and Cole said people dropping by for the contest won’t be left out. “People get a very, very good sampling.”

-Gerald Faris

What: Fishermen’s Fiesta.

When: Friday, 6-11 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m.; Sunday, noon-9 p.m.

Where: Berth 73, on the main channel south of Ports O’ Call, San Pedro.

Admission: Free.

Information: 832-7272.