Fiesta 2024 Photos and Videos

I know there are thousands of photos and videos of Fiesta, but I am offering some of my own. Here are my many photos and videos.

I got down to the staging area early and got some photos of the performers and other dignitaries. Here Father Larry Gosselin of the Mission posed with (L-R) Fiesta benefactor Rick Oshay, City Council Member Oscar Gutierrez, my DJ friend Darla Bea, Supervisor Das Williams and La Boheme Dance Group choreographer and dancer Teresa Kuskey.

There were some serious glitches this year with Fiesta that caused La Boheme not to be included in the Fiesta parade. I am still awaiting a full understanding of what happened. Other regulars in the parade were also excluded.

Mayor Randy Rowse kindly posed for me in the staging area.

This year’s Spirit of Fiesta Georgey Taupin (R) posed with the 2021 Spirit of Fiesta. You can see some other past Spirits and Junior Spirits who also posed for me in my full photo set.

Things were a bit chaotic at the start of the parade. It started almost fifteen minutes late. There were large gaps between the parade units. The second unit started long after the first one. And the units were often out of order relative to their official numbers. But eventually things got going. Here are a few of my video clips of the start of the parade. The Flower Girls. The Spirit of Fiesta. The Oxnard Band. An early group of horses approaching the starting line.

Soon Saint Barbara came into view.

And the 1965 Spirit of Fiesta along with other past Spirits and Junior Spirits.

The Chumash had a float.

This was the 100^th Fiesta and this was acknowledged in many ways. Here you can see the “100” on the Mission float with Father Larry.

The parade is officially called El Desfile Histórico (The Historical Parade) and it is primarily an equestrian (horse) parade. With a variety of horses that were exotic for me. So I got many photos of horses and riders! Here are a few and you can see many more in my full photo set.

There were also plenty of marching bands. Here was Banda Madre Tierra of Oxnard.

And plenty of dancers. Here I caught the Garcia dancers at several locations and merged together my short video clips.

As much as I enjoy all of these costumes, horses and performances, my favorite comes at the very end: The Santa Barbara Fire Fighters riding the wheel of their ancient pumper. This looks like quite a feat of strength and skill. I ran all the way from Castillo to Garden Street to catch them doing this feat several times. Here is my resulting video! Don’t miss the bit with the fire fighter handing out flowers with his lady friend, romancing her and then running to ride the wheel!

Of course there is a lot more to Fiesta than the parade. I only got to a few events this year. Here was a short clip of a dance ending in De La Guerra Plaza, followed by clips of Puro Flamenco dancers at Paseo Nuevo.

Here a group of young performers posed at Paseo Nuevo.

But I especially enjoy catching the small pop-up performances where you can see and interact with the performers up close and personal. Here were two short performances by Alma De Mexico at the Public Market.

It was also fun to catch the official and unofficial markets!

There are fans of Solstice and fans of Fiesta. I enjoy it all. And they have one thing in common: They have events all year long. Check out the Old Spanish Days – Fiesta web site to see what else is happening throughout the year.