Tag archives: Fiesta
Brightly-colored ruffles rim the hem of traditional Spanish dress, fluttering fans stir the air, the strum of guitars, clicking castanets, and high-heeled shoes are all reminders that August has been a special time in Santa Barbara with the celebration of Old Spanish Days! Music, dance, and vaquero traditions have had their day with the Fiesta […]
The party animals were out in force for one of Fiesta’s most popular parties, Celebration de Los Dignatarios, when a record 1,600 guests converged on Santa Barbara Zoo to raise more than $100,000 split equally between Old Spanish Days and the charming 30-acre menagerie. KEYT-TV weather anchor Christa Kurkjian was on hand to do a […]
It was the perfect spot to view Las Noches de Ronda in the nearby Sunken Gardens when the Courthouse Legacy Foundation hosted a sold-out Fiesta bash for 150 guests that raised around $50,000 in the historic Mural Room. The fab fête, co-chaired by Angelique Davis and Rodney Baker, featured classical guitarist Chris Fossek, the Spirit […]
Social gadabout Rick Oshay and La Boheme Dancers founder Teresa Kuskey really put the “ship” in sponsorship as the tony twosome hosted a harborside bash for 75 guests on the 100-foot replica of the 1542 Spanish galleon San Salvador near to the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum, which also co-sponsored the visit with Old Spanish Days. […]
The Santa Barbara Woman’s Club held its annual gala celebrating Fiesta, called La Merienda, on Wednesday, August 2, at their Mission Canyon Rockwood club. This soirée was established in 1928, and its event chair is Sue Ziliotto. The event was seriously double sold-out with ladies arriving in brightly colored flamenco dresses, and men in their […]
The Profant Foundation’s Fiesta Finale Gala will be held on Sunday, August 6 starting at 5:30 pm at the historic open-air El Paseo Restaurant; included is a delicious gourmet dinner, a dazzling professional performance, a live auction led by Erin Graffy, a costume contest, and dancing under the stars. It was those same stars and […]
Our tony town’s annual Fiesta fest kicked off at a sold-out La Recepción del Presidente for 300 guests when 17 past presidents with current president David Bolton filled the historic Santa Barbara Club – where in 1924 the idea for Old Spanish Days began. Eight members of the club have served as El Presidente, including […]
It was not so much a night on the tiles as a day on one when society scribe and local historian Erin Graffy de Garcia talked about her book Old Spanish Days: Santa Barbara History Through Public Art during an entertaining hour-long lecture at the Santa Barbara Yacht Club. The 117-page book was originally published […]
Fiesta fever was palpable when Montecito Bank & Trust hosted its annual Viva La Fiesta bash in the picturesque courtyard of the Santa Barbara Historical Museum. More than 250 colorfully costumed guests noshed on tacos, burritos, and all food Spanish as the Spirit of Fiesta Jack Harwood, son of museum director Dacia Harwood, and Junior […]
Celebrating the 99th anniversary of its founding this year, Santa Barbara’s Old Spanish Days Fiesta was established in August 1924. Civic celebrations commemorating Santa Barbara’s old Spanish days, however, date back to the December 1886 fiesta celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of Mission Santa Barbara. The purpose of that four-day celebration was to […]
Social gridlock reigned at the Santa Barbara Historical Museum when it hosted its annual La Fiesta del Museo for 220 guests raising around $100,000 for the popular institution with all tickets selling out in two hours. Ubiquitous KEYT-TV reporter John Palminteri emceed the bustling bash and conducted the auction, with an etching by cowboy artist […]
by Paul Vercammen Long before David Bolton ascended to 2023 El Presidente of Santa Barbara’s Old Spanish Days, just another lofty position and title for him, he slept in his Honda Accord. For four and a half weeks in 1992, he crashed on a futon that replaced the removed passenger seat. David needed to be […]
The Santa Barbara Historical Museum (SBHM) held its annual La Fiesta del Museo fundraiser on July 22, in the museum’s outside courtyard, which was elegantly decorated with wrought iron chandeliers, Arabic lanterns, velvet table linens, and fresh flowers. The event drew more than 300 guests in classic fiesta attire, with women in elaborate Spanish flamenco […]
Society gadabout Rick Oshay and Teresa Kuskey Nowak, bubbly founder of the La Boheme dance company, hosted their 4th annual Viva La Fiesta bash at Fieldside, the popular Santa Barbara Polo Club restaurant, for 200 gloriously garbed guests. The fun fête featured Teresa’s colorful dancers who led our Eden by the Beach’s Summer Solstice parade, […]
Santa Barbara Historical Museum’s latest exhibition, Project Fiesta, marking the 99th anniversary of Old Spanish Days, was a Herculean task. Museum president Dacia Harwood and her colleagues had to sort through thousands of photos in the institution’s Gledhill Library to pick just 99 shots, mostly black and white, taken since Fiesta was founded in 1924. […]
More than 600 guests turned out for the 15th anniversary of Fiesta Ranchera at the 151-year-old Rancho La Patera gardens in Goleta raising in excess of $30,000 split equally between Old Spanish Days and the Goleta Valley Historical Society. The fun fête, chaired by the tony triumvirate of Janice Howell, Paula Bottiani, and Jenna Verbryke, […]
Despite its official title, Old Spanish Days is making it abundantly clear this year that it’s not an organization firmly attached to being stuck in its old ways. Not only did Fiesta, one of the area’s most popular and long-standing cultural festivals, earlier announce that it had chosen a male as Spirit of Fiesta for […]
Before Jack Harwood was named Spirit of Fiesta on April 15, people really couldn’t have been faulted for not knowing that a male could actually be chosen as the Spirit – after all, in the 73-year history of the tradition that began in 1949, only girls and young women have been named to the coveted […]
The SB Woman’s Club at Rockwood hosted a Fiesta fashion show-luncheon on April 19th. The Profant Foundation for the Arts donated their Vintage Fiesta Costume Collection and the models were members of the SB Woman’s Club. During the luncheon and reception, a slide show depicting the history of the Profant family and their involvement in […]
In a spirited competition at the Lobero with more than 600 eager attendees, Jack Harwood,19, was donned as this year’s Spirit of Fiesta, marking the first time ever a male Spirit of Fiesta was selected. Jack is the son of Riley and Dacia Harwood, the Executive Director of the Santa Barbara Historical Museum. My Montecito […]
