Picnic baskets, wine and treats were shared at the Goleta Dam Dinner at Lake Los Carneros Saturday evening.
Hundreds of residents, visitors and city leaders gathered for one of Goleta’s most popular community events, which is organized by the city of Goleta and the Goleta Valley Historical Society.
Tom Vanlehn lived in Goleta from 1963 to 1988, but a house-sitting gig brought him and his wife, Louise Vanlehn, back to town for summer, giving them the opportunity to attend the dinner for the first time.
“It’s really awesome,” said Tom Vanlehn. “It’s a real pretty setting, and everything, the backdrop is beautiful. It’s just nice to see the community do stuff.”
Tom remembers trying to catch frogs at the lake as a kid, so he was enjoying being back and was hoping to see a few familiar faces from back in the day.
Louise Vanlehn said she couldn’t think of anything like the dam dinner happening in their own city back in Oregon.
The two decided to go to Saturday’s dinner after a friend recommended they go to hear Nate Latta’s music.
Latta is a longtime Goleta musician and songwriter who performed during the dinner. Latta stepped in for the Salt Martians, a local Bluegrass band that was scheduled to perform but had to drop out.
People were invited to bring their own dinner or enjoy Mylestone Barbeque, which served pulled pork, beef brisket, and more. Free snow cones were also available courtesy of Kona Ice.
This was the city’s tenth dam dinner. The tradition started in 2012 and has been going on ever since, except for 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic. While many locals enjoy coming each year, a few long-time residents were attending for the first time.
Tanya Reutimann has lived in Goleta for 40 years and attended Saturday’s dinner for the first time with her neighbor. She was looking forward to enjoying the music and meeting Mayor Paula Perotte and city council members.
“I think it’s very positive,” Reutimann said. “I was impressed when I got here and saw the setup.”
Perotte was handing out peanut butter cookies she made herself. She said the dinner is a great opportunity for residents, and visitors, to enjoy a free event with no agenda.
“It’s so fabulous to see everybody at an event that we can give back to the community,” Perotte said.
Perotte said the dinner gives people a chance to enjoy good food and hopefully even meet new people.
“Everybody’s breaking bread with their neighbors, they’re hopefully not talking politics, they’re just enjoying looking at this incredibly beautiful area,” Perotte said.
