GENERAL
INFORMATION

In 1905, Venice was new. Not the Venice we know today, but an experiment in what a beach town could be.

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Abbot Kinney imagined a place where culture and entertainment could live alongside the Pacific. He built canals through the neighborhood, brought gondolas to the coast and created a grand avenue leading visitors toward the ocean. At the end of that avenue stood a pleasure pier filled with music, dancing, dining and entertainment.

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On July 4, 1905, Venice of America opened its doors.

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They came for the beach. They came for the music. They came to dance, explore, gather and experience something they couldn't find anywhere else.

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Over the generations, the faces and forms changed. Gondolas gave way to surfboards. Pleasure piers gave way to skateparks and basketball courts. New generations of musicians, artists, performers, skaters, surfers, creators and characters found their way here.

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But Venice remained a place built around the same simple idea:

Come as you are. Experience something different.

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1905 is about celebrating the spirit that started here: creativity, experimentation, community and the belief that the beach can be more than a destination.

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1905 Fest is centered at Windward and the Pacific, along the same historic path that once carried visitors through the heart of the original Venice toward the pier and ocean beyond. Windward Avenue was the primary commercial corridor of Kinney's original development and the gateway through which many early visitors first experienced Venice.

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More than 120 years later, we're gathering here again.