LOS ANGELES — Fleet Week, the annual, five-day celebration of the nation's Sea Services on the Los Angeles Waterfront at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro, began Thursday with a free welcome party in downtown San Pedro from 5 to 9 p.m.

There was another welcome party Friday from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at Banning House in Wilmington.

Tours of active-duty ships begin Friday. No reservations are required, but visitors are required to join a digital queue to be assigned a time to enter the shuttle line and take a shuttle bus from either 22nd and Miner streets or adjacent to the Battleship Iowa at 250 S. Harbor Blvd.

Fleet Week also includes military displays and equipment demonstrations, the talent competition "Military Has Talent," "Galley Wars," a cook-off competition between Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Air Force and Army teams, dodgeball and aircraft flyovers.

Fleet Week activities are not limited to the Harbor Area. The public can meet Navy sailors from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday at The Grove. A "Park Party" will be Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Brand Park in Mission Hills with live music, barbecue for veterans, food trucks and children's activities.

Nearly 1,000 Sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen will come to the Los Angeles Waterfront for Fleet Week, according to organizers.

Participating units from the U.S. Navy forces include the Dock Landing Ship USS Harpers Ferry; the Arleigh-Burke class guided missile destroyer USS Carl M. Levin and the unmanned surface vessel Mariner.

The Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard will also participate in a disaster response exercise, designed to train military forces and local, county, state and federal government agencies to work together to respond to natural and man-made disasters, such as earthquakes, wildfires and industrial accidents.

The full schedule of events is available here.