Craig Samborski News

How do you lose a 59-foot giant rubber duck? Torrential downpours and heavy flooding helped accomplish that task in China last week; but the loss of the enormous bath toy won’t impede plans for the duck’s West Coast debut at the Tall Ships Festival Los Angeles on Aug. 20. According to Craig Samborski, executive producer of the Tall Ships Festival Los Angeles, not only will the gigantic rubber duck be on hand, but will be larger than the 59-foot model last seen in Taiwan. Constructing an original rubber duck for the event “has been the plan all along,” said Samborski.

Florentijn Hofman’s Rubber Duck Project will make its U.S. West Coast debut at Tall Ships Festival L.A., August 20, 2014, sailing into the Port of Los Angeles Harbor leading the Tall Ships Grand Parade of Sail. The Port of Los Angeles is the first U.S. West Coast port to host the globally famous rubber duck and only the second North American city to do so. The Duck Project is the creative effort of internationally renowned artist Florentijn Hofman (The Netherlands). “The rubber duck knows no frontiers, it doesn't discriminate people and doesn't have a political connotation.