Originating as a birthday celebration,
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara (, meaning ) is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States excepting A ...
's Summer Solstice Parade began in 1974. This parade was created by Michael Gonzalez, a
Santa Barbara resident and a mime and artist.
The
parade
A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually some variety ...
is the largest single-day event in
Santa Barbara County
Santa Barbara County, officially the County of Santa Barbara (), is a county located in Southern California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 448,229. The county seat is Santa Barbara, and the largest city is Santa M ...
,
attracting crowds of 100,000 people or more.
Weeks prior to the day of the parade, a workshop is opened where participating artists and technicians work with the community to conceive ideas, build floats, make costumes, and put their performances together.
History
In 1974, artist and
mime
A mime artist, or simply mime (from Greek language, Greek , , "imitator, actor"), is a person who uses ''mime'' (also called ''pantomime'' outside of Britain), the acting out of a story through body motions without the use of speech, as a the ...
, Michael Gonzalez gathered some of his street performer friends to dance down State Street in Santa Barbara, California, in celebration of his birthday.
Each year the parade grew until this annual event encompassed street fairs, concerts, theatre performances,
floats, costumes, and
dancing ensembles.
The parade went on hiatus in 2020 and restarted in 2022.
See also
*
Fremont Solstice Parade
The Fremont Solstice Parade is an annual event that occurs each June in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington.
The Parade was founded by Barbara Luecke and Peter Toms in 1989. Luecke and Toms were inspired by the Santa Barbara Summer So ...
*
Bohemianism
Bohemianism is a social and cultural movement that has, at its core, a way of life away from society's conventional norms and expectations. The term originates from the French ''bohème'' and spread to the English-speaking world. It was used to ...
*
Culture jamming
Culture jamming (sometimes also guerrilla communication) is a form of protest used by many anti-consumerist social movements to disrupt or subvert media culture and its mainstream cultural institutions, including corporate advertising. It at ...
References
Tourist attractions in Santa Barbara, California
Festivals in California
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