Tips on attending the Historical Regatta in Venice?

We did this in 2010 and really enjoyed seeing all the different boats. We did not pay for a spot, we found a spot near Rialto bridge early in the day and claimed it. There is an area on the southeast side of the bridge that is sidewalks along the Grand Canal and we just sat there along the edge of the water and had a pretty good view of everything. There are not a lot of sidewalk areas along the Grand Canal because a lot of buildings are right up to the edge of the water. Unfortunately that meant staying put for a longer period of time (in the sun) waiting for the event to start. There were 2 of us so we would take turns getting up to get food/drink and stretch our legs. And we did get to see some practice runs before the main event. We just lucked into this spot as we were in the area and noticed crowds starting to build. If I did it again I would go to the same place but make sure to have a small bag with food/drink, a book to read, hat, etc. I am sure that paying for a viewing spot might give you more flexibility on how early you have to get there and getting up if you needed.

As far as crowds, we did not notice anything more. I thought the crowds were much worse when we went back to Venice in 2014 and that was with no special event. Unfortunately I cannot speak to anything more recent.

I think the main issue is just to be aware of when and which vaporetto lines will be disrupted during the event. This info should be posted at the vaporetto docks as well as at http://actv.avmspa.it/en.

I attended last year.
I paid for a seat in some stands that were set-up in place of (I think) the San Stae vaporetto stop (they actually removed the stop and brought in a barge with seat-back bleacher type seats on it). That's because I wanted to photograph the festivities and could not get any information of a good place to go that would allow my visual access. I don't come to Venice enough to know the best sight lines and locations. Also, because I was alone, setting up somewhere early and standing there for hours to save the spot did not appeal to me. The cost was 60 euro.

(edit to add: The reserved seat was nice for arriving-when-I-wanted-to purposes, but I was restricted to that one space up a section of bleacher seats so my photography opportunities offered little variation.)

I did not notice any more of a crowd than normal, although after the races were done, it did seem that everybody in Venice at that time was out. It's one of the highlights of the Venice calendar, so I wasn't troubled by it.

Even if you don't go, be aware that this occurs along a considerable portion of the Grand Canal, so MUCH of the vaporetto service is interrupted between Ferrovia and San Marco.

Yes, go to it! We went to the regatta about five years ago. During that trip, we stayed at Padova, first, circled around the Veneto & Dolomite regions and ended in Venice. We attended the regatta while we were staying in Padova. We didn’t pay to sit in a bleacher section; we just sat at the canal edge with locals. We left before it completely finished and ate an early dinner before catching the vaporetto and train back to Padova.

The regatta was interesting and very colorful. We enjoyed the neighborhood historically decorated long boats and watching different sets of competition. It would have been more fun if we had chosen a specific neighborhood to cheer instead of being a spectator.

Thanks, all, for the great amount of detail about this intriguing event! We've attended festivals on some past trips and found it really added an extra dimension. Just trying to balance that against the possibility of overwhelming crowds, but it doesn't sound like crowds make the situation impossible.

Jean, when you mention cheering for a particular neighborhood, would that just involve researching background on their boat, or is there something else we should do?