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Old Spanish Days Fiesta in Santa Barbara
Susan Helene Kramer
The Santa Barbara Old Spanish Days Fiesta is an annual event from
Wednesday morning through Sunday, the first week of August. It is very dear to
my heart as I have extended family dancing in the parade many years.
Fiesta is not limited to
downtown Santa Barbara, but indeed spreads out across town with markets,
traditional food, and entertainment scheduled at various locations including
Mercado De La Guerra, Mercado Del Norte, Santa Barbara Courthouse Sunken
Gardens, and Earl Warren Show grounds.
Even the Santa Barbara
Mission is included with docent tours scheduled in each day. In the photo
you’ll see a view of dancing downtown - all ages enjoying.
Wednesday entertainment
begins at Mercado De La Guerra across from City Hall and includes the annual
ribbon cutting ceremony late morning followed by dance groups and in the
evening bands play for listening enjoyment.
The Thursday, Friday and
Saturday schedules are similar with each of the venues that are in downtown.
One of the highlights each
year is dancing by the Spirit of Fiesta and the Junior Spirit of Fiesta. These
two young ladies practice with their dance studios all year in preparation for the
tryouts for the positions for Fiesta, and all the dances they will entertain
with, along with the rest of the dancers from their respective studios.
Click on this YouTube video
of Corrie Jimenez, 2013 Spirit of Fiesta, part of my Santa Barbara family,
dancing Anunciación -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgLvpmMG7PI
Seeing the Spanish dancing
reminds me of the 2 summers I studied classical Spanish dance with Roberto Ximenez and Manolo Vargas at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival
in Lee, Massachusetts.
In my opinion, the main
event, not to be missed is El Desfile
Histórico, the parade on Friday at noon from the west
end of Cabrillo Boulevard and going up State Street as far as Sola Street. You
may not see a larger equestrian parade in America.
All
of Santa Barbara and surrounding communities turn out for Fiesta,
it is a much anticipated event of the year.
For
driving, Rt. 101 goes right through the city, which is about 100 miles north of
Los Angeles.
Fiesta schedules:
http://www.oldspanishdays-fiesta.org
Source:
(1)
Rand
McNally Road Atlas for driving route.
Article photo of dancers by Susan Helene Kramer
Copyright 2012-2015 Susan Helene Kramer
Santa Barbara, California USA
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Published by Creations in Consciousness
email susan@susankramer.com
web site http://www.susankramer.com