Edhat Staff
Local photographers captured photos of the Santa Barbara Summer Solstice Parade on June 22, 2024.
The parade took place at noon starting at Santa Barbara and Ortega Streets before winding its way to Alameda Park.
The parade put on a spectacular display of artistic expression, featuring new performance artists and a myriad of creative interpretations of the “Flights of Fancy” theme.
The below photos are by Fritz Olenberger:
By StargazerRon
Saturday, June 22 was a fine day in Santa Barbara to witness the 50th annual Summer Solstice Parade.
I’ve been lucky enough to see most of them including the first ones along Cabrillo Boulevard at East Beach. In my aging memory bank I remember the roller skaters in skimpy colorful costumes racing back and forth across the street, sometimes coming very close to the hometown audience sitting on curbs. From its humble beginnings it moved to State Street and grew to feature more and more elaborate people-powered floats as well as organized dance, musical, and performance ensembles. An estimated 100,000 people now enjoy this colorful and joyous event.
The parade was on State Street until 2022 when it moved to Santa Barbara Street, beginning at Ortega then parading all the way to Alameda Park. Though it is a bit more confined, in my humble opinion, I like Santa Barbara Street with its more verdant backdrop for my photographs as it passes through Santa Barbara’s historic Presidio. 1979 first saw a theme for the celebration, starting with “Children.” This year’s theme was “Flights of Fancy.”
Below is a sampling from the 2024 parade. More can be viewed at: https://photos.app.goo.gl/
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Most important, Thank you very much for sharing your beautiful photos with the edhat community 🙂 … but please, there are errors in your ‘history’ of Solstice. It began “on’ State St as a birthday party with friends. It was ‘only’ held on Cabrillo Blvd “one’ time. It was very windy and the giant clear balls they were rolling down the street bowled over on top of and frightened people sitting at the curbs. …The parade has been held on State St. until the pandemic/closure of State St/parklets made that not possible. This is the 2nd year it has been held on Santa Barbara St. The Historical Museum has a great ehibit on the history of Summer Solstice Parade w/posters, videos, photos, stories. I highly recommend it.