Tag archives: solstice

A Shining Night
By Richard Mineards   |   May 14, 2024

Santa Barbara Historical Museum’s latest exhibition celebrates half a century of Summer Solstice, the colorful and creative annual parade on State Street. The event started in 1974 when mime and artist Michael Gonzales celebrated his birthday with friends on the town’s main thoroughfare. Fifty years later nearly 100,000 people line the street to experience something […]

Roots in Solstice. The Longest Day Needs You
By Jeff Wing   |   June 20, 2023

Yes. Our warm, wet, and lovely home planet is tilted weirdly on its axis – like a white-wine lightweight after an author’s luncheon, more or less. As it races around the local ball of fire at around 67,000 mph, Earth’s angular disposition in relation to the sun makes the days here longer, there shorter. Over […]

Imagine Your Float: Setting the Stage for a Successful Solstice 
By Steven Libowitz   |   May 2, 2023

The official workshop for this year’s Summer Solstice Parade on June 24 won’t open until mid-May, but festival veterans and newcomers can get a jump on participating in a big way, thanks to a new workshop taking place this weekend. Artist and former high school art teacher Judith Raimondi is facilitating the “Imagine Your Float” […]

Solstice Shines on Parade
By Joanne A Calitri   |   July 5, 2022

To bring some Shine into the summer, the Santa Barbara Solstice Parade returned on June 25 with that theme, and a new route up Santa Barbara Street. Perhaps it should have been on this historic road all along. An estimated over 100,000 attendees paid homage to the sun, and yes, ‘60s hippies crawled out of […]

A Shapeshifting Solstice Performance
By Steven Libowitz   |   June 28, 2022

Shapeshifting, in mythology and folklore, is the ability to physically transform oneself through an inherently superhuman ability, divine intervention, or sorcery, Wikipedia says. Metaphorically, at least, and leaving out the part about demonic manipulation, that pretty much sums up Santa Barbara’s The ShapeShifters, the new supergroup/house band hosts created by Randy Tico.  “It’s about changing […]

Summer Solstice Seeks Volunteers
By Montecito Journal   |   June 28, 2022

The days are at the longest and the Summer Solstice Parade is coming back at full force and with a new Santa Barbara Street route. This upcoming weekend promises to be full of costumed revelry and to live up to this year’s theme: Shine. The Solstice crew is also seeking some last-minute volunteers to help […]

The ShapeShifters’ Solstice Concert at the Luke
By Montecito Journal   |   June 21, 2022

The Marjorie Luke Theatre is proud to present The ShapeShifters band collective as they celebrate Solstice at The Marjorie Luke Theatre on June 25th beginning at 7 pm, located at 721 East Cota Street.  The evening will feature a two-set concert composed of Santa Barbara’s premier musicians and vocalists accompanied by a courtyard celebration with […]

Mission Possible: I Madonnari Returns
By Steven Libowitz   |   May 31, 2022

Art intended to be much more ephemeral makes its heralded return this Memorial Day weekend as the I Madonnari Festival Street Painting event resumes its annual three-day takeover of the plaza in front of the Santa Barbara Mission after two years as a virtual event. It’s also the first festival since the retirement of Kathy […]

Center of Attention: CST Wastes No Time Bringing Back Live Performances
By Steven Libowitz   |   June 24, 2021

Who could have predicted dance as the art form that would dominate reopening at the Center Stage Theater? Sure, the “black box” theater upstairs in Paseo Nuevo has been a happy home for several of the local dance companies that produce their own periodic performances and has also hosted a few festivals featuring revues. But […]

Sibilant Surprise: Santa Barbara’s Safe Social Distance Summer Solstice Celebration
By Steven Libowitz   |   June 18, 2020

A lot of things seem impossible to produce during a pandemic, most assuredly a parade, especially one as perennially popular as Santa Barbara’s Solstice Parade and Festival, which draws crowds of more than 100,000 participants and spectators from town and all around. Held at high noon on the Saturday closest to June 21, Solstice (as […]

Montecito Meditation for Solstice
By Steven Libowitz   |   December 19, 2019

Celebrate the Winter Solstice with meditation with Sarah McLean – the 25-year veteran contemporary meditation and mindfulness teacher who co-founded the new Montecito Meditation Center. Participants will be guided into a solstice meditation practice to welcome the dark on the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and let go of what doesn’t […]

The Mental Floss of Mindfulness
By Steven Libowitz   |   December 12, 2019

While decades ago, meditation and mindfulness might have been considered a New Age distraction for woo-woo Californians, the practices have clearly been adopted as mainstream by individuals, businesses, families and other organizations. The medical, emotional, and spiritual benefits are palpable, but perhaps still somewhat difficult to grasp. Integrating those two has been a two-decade-plus passion […]

Community Arts Workshop
By Zach Rosen   |   November 14, 2019

On the corner of Garden and Ortega lies an unmistakable workshop. A wide driveway gives way to two large buildings with high roofs. A distinct, bold steel gate designed by David Shelton makes a grand entrance to the space and provides a firm statement that this site is about the arts. The space is known […]