ARTICLE
The Redondo Beach Chamber has decided that after twenty three years it’s time to take a step back and re-evaluate the Redondo Beach Lobster Festival. The festival was successfully created and launched by the King Harbor Association (KHA) as a tool to attract visitors to come and experience Redondo Beach. The Lobster Festival created an enormous amount of publicity for Redondo Beach and the Waterfront area, as was its original intention. After several years, the Promotional Director for KHA left Redondo Beach to promote another lobster festival in a neighboring city. The KHA was considering giving the event up, but several Redondo Beach Council Members at the time recognized the PR value of the Redondo Beach Lobster Festival as a destination event for the city, and too valuable to let go and they asked the Chamber & Visitors Bureau to take it over. The KHA has continued to support the event as the main sponsor. In 2012 Lobster University was founded and the Lobster Ladies made their debut at the Festival that year. They are always such enthusiastic entertainers enhancing the experience of the Festival. Where will they turn up next? We expect they will spring up at events throughout the community keeping the concept of the Redondo Beach Lobster Festival alive. When asked why the hiatus, Marna Smeltzer, President and CEO said this, “The Chamber is in transition, there will be a new Redondo Beach Chamber CEO, new staff, new Board leadership and festival costs have increased significantly. The hiatus will give the chamber some time to identify new opportunities.” The event has gone through different phases over many years in an effort to keep it fresh and enticing and we feel the community climate is ready for another change. The Chamber looks forward to continuing to support our city, the community, and local business. You can expect to see exciting new programs and events from the chamber in the future.
The Redondo Beach Chamber has decided that after twenty three years it’s time to take a step back and re-evaluate the Redondo Beach Lobster Festival. The festival was successfully created and launched by the King Harbor Association (KHA) as a tool to attract visitors to come and experience Redondo Beach. The Lobster Festival created an enormous amount of publicity for Redondo Beach and the Waterfront area, as was its original intention.
After several years, the Promotional Director for KHA left Redondo Beach to promote another lobster festival in a neighboring city. The KHA was considering giving the event up, but several Redondo Beach Council Members at the time recognized the PR value of the Redondo Beach Lobster Festival as a destination event for the city, and too valuable to let go and they asked the Chamber & Visitors Bureau to take it over. The KHA has continued to support the event as the main sponsor.
In 2012 Lobster University was founded and the Lobster Ladies made their debut at the Festival that year. They are always such enthusiastic entertainers enhancing the experience of the Festival. Where will they turn up next? We expect they will spring up at events throughout the community keeping the concept of the Redondo Beach Lobster Festival alive.
When asked why the hiatus, Marna Smeltzer, President and CEO said this, “The Chamber is in transition, there will be a new Redondo Beach Chamber CEO, new staff, new Board leadership and festival costs have increased significantly. The hiatus will give the chamber some time to identify new opportunities.”
The event has gone through different phases over many years in an effort to keep it fresh and enticing and we feel the community climate is ready for another change. The Chamber looks forward to continuing to support our city, the community, and local business. You can expect to see exciting new programs and events from the chamber in the future.