It’s been a Long Beach staple since 2007, where hundreds of pirate enthusiasts and cosplayers take on the roles of Anne Bonny and Blackbeard while storming the shores of our fair city—and Pirate Invasion Long Beach returns yet again come July 8 and 9 at the newly minted venue of Shoreline Aquatic Park, dubbed “Pirate Island” for the event.
“Honestly, we look forward to this event all year,” said Jesel Ortloff, whose father Fred Khammar founded the event in 2007. “We’re excited to be able to provide a fun, family-friendly outlet and celebration of pirates here in Long Beach.”
So why the new location? Mainly a pub crawl, of course.
“We’ll have three crawls throughout each day: one at 1:30PM, one at 3:30PM, and one at 5PM,” Ortloff said. “And it will be led by Chips the Pirate.”
The “Nowhere to Rum” crawl will visit the island’s three drinking establishments, ending at the VIP bar—that’s “very important pirate,” in this case—where one can meet the King and Queen. (Which can also be done if you have a VIP ticket, which scores you free drinks and some swag, including a mug and shirt depending on which ticket you purchase, as well as entry into the crawl should you purchase the gold VIP ticket.)
Of course, while that particular crawl is limited to adults only, the wee ones are happily open to every other aspect of the event: fully decked-out mermaids in cosplay will be on hand for photos, sword fighting and black powder shows will be in progress, vendors “selling pirate booty from the Seven Seas” will be on hand, fire show come dawn… This is all on top of face painting, inflatables, an interactive encampment that goes over pirate history, a costume contest…
Yo-ho, Long Beach—now go get your skullduggery on.
Pirate Invasion takes place at the Shoreline Aquatic Park on July 8 and 9. For tickets, click here.
