PORT HUENEME : 39th Harbor Days Opens With Parade

A German Oktoberfest, Irish and Polynesian dancing and boomerang demonstrations will highlight the “Friends Around The World” theme of the 39th annual Port Hueneme Harbor Days celebration that begins today.

The two-day event begins this morning with a sand sculpture contest at the Port Hueneme Pier from 9 a.m. to noon, with the Harbor Days parade scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m. on Surfside Drive.

Councilman Dorill B. Wright and his wife, Jacquelyn, will be the parade’s grand marshals, while Barney the Dinosaur and his sidekick Baby Bop will serve as the parade’s junior marshals. Toay Foster of Oxnard, a Port Hueneme native who was named Miss California this year, will be an honored guest in the parade.

The school bands of E.O. Green and Blackstock junior highs in Port Hueneme will perform a prelude to the parade, which will include equestrian groups, at least 10 marching bands, dancers, clowns and specialty cars.

While most of Harbor Days’ free events will be staged near the Port Hueneme Pier, the public is invited to the Oktoberfest from 9 a.m. to noon today at the U.S. Naval Construction Battalion Center on Sunkist Street at Ventura Road. The Oktoberfest is hosted by the Navy Morale, Welfare & Recreation Department.

Tours of “California Responder,” the vessel maintained by the Marine Spill Response Corp., will be conducted today and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. at the Port of Hueneme, 105 E. Port Hueneme Road.

Attendance at Harbor Days is free. A benefit 10-K race and one-mile run will be held at 8 a.m. Sunday, with proceeds going to the Boys & Girls Club of Port Hueneme. Late registration will cost $15 for the 10-K run and $5 for the mile run, with both events starting at the Beach Park, Lot C, on Surfside Drive.