Artists once again have gathered at the Community Arts Workshop on Garden Street in Santa Barbara as they prepare their floats for the annual Summer Solstice Parade.
The 51st annual Summer Solstice Celebration kicks off Friday and continues through Sunday with music, food, vendors and more.
The theme for this year’s parade is “Wild World.” Riccardo Morrison, the parade’s artistic director, said the creators are free to design their pieces in ways that incorporate the theme directly or in a more abstract way.
One of the floats he mentioned is a float dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Santa Barbara earthquake, which hit the city in 1925.
“That’s another interpretation that I wouldn’t have necessarily thought of, where the world is actually wild, and then we have mermaids and krakens. So, it’s just evolving (to include) a bunch of different things,” Morrison said.
Jonathan Smith, the creator of the earthquake float, said he wanted to incorporate the unpredictability of natural disasters.
“If you look at what’s happening in the world right now as a result of climate change … it’s getting to be a really wild world,” Smith said. “Natural disasters are part of any wild world.”
Smith is also a member of the group EQ25, which is organizing events to remember the anniversary. He said the group thought it would be a good idea to commemorate the disaster and its 100th anniversary through a performance.
The float will be a performance with set pieces that fall and shake. The float was designed to look like brick buildings like the ones from 1925.
Smith said his goal is to make the performance more goofy than uncomfortable. He said it is also good to remind people that they live in an earthquake zone.
“I don’t want to offend people, but I don’t want to give anyone a bad time,” Smith said.
One of the other artists at the workshop is Adriana Reyna and her co-artist, Omar Barreto, who are working on a float called “Mi Tierra: El Canto de la Curandera.” The name means “My Land: The Song of the Healer.”
Reyna said the piece is meant to celebrate Indigenous cultures. The ensemble will feature a full band and sing two songs, “Maria La Curandera” by Natalia Lafourcade and “Yo Le Canto” by Flor de Guayaba.
It’s the second year that they have participated in the parade, Reyna said. Last year, their float featured dancing and music.
“This year … we are gonna have a cumbia, but it’s a little more about we’re going through hard times. So, we want to bring out this creativity and live for the community and bring Santa Barbara together,” she said.
On Saturday and Sunday, the Solstice Celebration will feature Funtopia, which will include games, workshops, live music and art installations. The celebration will also include food trucks and a beer and wine garden for attendees age 21 or older.
The parade will kick off at noon Saturday, starting at Santa Barbara and Ortega streets and traveling to Alameda Park.
The three-day celebration will begin Friday from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. in Alameda Park and will continue Saturday, starting at noon and ending at 8 p.m. The last day of the event will be Sunday, from noon to 7 p.m.