The Santa Barbara Independent organized an annual St Patrick’s Day Stroll for quite a few years. My photos of the event for Edhat began in 2011, but it may have gone back further than that. But all such events ended during COVID and have struggled to start again.
The Independent decided to restart it this year, starting from their new office at 223 East De La Guerra and strolling down State Street. Here are my photos.
Music was provided by the Santa Barbara Sheriffs Pipe and Drum Corps – “Disturbing the Peace Since 2007” being their slogan! They did not have their full group for the occasion, but the bagpipes were still plenty loud!
St Patrick’s Day this year was on a Tuesday, meaning that the Stroll passed right through the busy Tuesday Farmer’s Market! Here you can see the bagpipers with the market stalls behind and alongside them.
Here is my video of the full stroll. First, at street level. Then, viewed from slightly above.
Here are some frames from the video from street level.
Here are some frames from the video from slightly above street level.
The stroll ended at Institution Ale at 516 State Street, where many strollers indulged in the St Patrick’s Day drinking traditions. But we headed back up to the Farmer’s Market. Where we soon encountered Simon Kiefer and his wife Karen.
You probably recognize Simon from many events around town where he brings out old mechanical typewriters for various creative purposes. They wanted to be sure we noticed the green typewriter especially for St Patrick’s Day!
– Robert Bernstein
Nice pics Robert! Seems like a pretty low turnout this year, about 20 people?
Thank you for the kind words. Yes, it was rather sparse this year. I hope they can do more publicity next year. It also might work better to gather the crowd in De La Guerra Plaza with the full bagpipe band drawing a crowd and energizing them before the start.