A vision and idea of El Presidente Colin Hayward’s Sells Out with more than 100 entrants
Dressed in their Fiesta finest, more than 100 of our best friends brought cheers from the large crowd gathered as the inaugural Old Spanish Days Fiesta Dog Parade became a huge success Saturday morning.
The vision and idea of El Presidente 2026 Colin Hayward, the Fiesta Dog Parade saw throngs of spectators line both sides of State Street to watch the colorful parade. Accompanied by their owners, the pooches were definitely the stars of the day.
“We are so pleased this first Fiesta Dog Parade turned out to be such a success,” said El Presidente Colin Hayward who worked with City of Santa Barbara and Paseo Nuevo officials to create the parade route. “The setting was perfect and the energy was tremendous. It was a memorable day.”
Indeed it was. Inspired by Old Spanish Days Fiesta, this vibrant new Old Spanish Days tradition brought together locals, businesses, nonprofits, and pet lovers for a one-of-a-kind event filled with color, creativity, and connection.
“We wanted to give more people a reason to feel connected to Fiesta in 2026,” added El Presidente Hayward.
Fiesta 2026 runs August 5-9. Additional details at sbfiesta.org.
Also Read
- Old Spanish Days Announces Expansion Plans for Fiesta 2026
- Applications Now Open for the 94th Annual Children’s Fiesta Parade
- From Wagging Tails to Winning Verses, Old Spanish Days adds Fresh Flair with Fiesta Dog Parade and Poetry Contest
- Old Spanish Days: La Primavera Delights a Sold-out Crowd
- Old Spanish Days Unveils 2026 Fiesta Poster
Bring back the Big Dog Parade — or some facsimile of such, whereby dog owners can participate for FREE. Those parades drew out-of-town participants, which benefited our bed tax and restaurants and so on. People lined the streets to watch the dogs and everyone had a happy happy time.
This is so nice but it points out how ANTI Santa Barbara most of the city council is. For 100 years we celebrated our city down state street. People got to see the beautiful architecture, the men and women who operate businesses so we can have a local life. The council hates SB and decided a few years ago to just throw away this tradition and send it the beach, No architecture no chance for businesses to be seen. They are just stuck on a view that they can determine the what our city does with its heritage. What could be the reason they hate us so much.
JOJO – let’s get you some tissues, m’kay?
State St. is OPEN. Visitors and locals alike will be crawling up and down our beautiful street all weekend.
“No architecture no chance for businesses to be seen.” – Have you ever been to Santa Barbara? Is the Courthouse on State St.? Is the Mission on State St.? Is the Presidio on State St.? What “architecture” do you think people will miss because of the parade being 2 blocks over and RIGHT ALONG SIDE the Presidio, the beautiful Historical Museum and the SB Courthouse in all her glory?
What business will be hidden from view? Playa Azul? All the other great little shops and places to eat, which are again, ONLY 2 BLOCKS from State?
The overexaggerating and constant crying is exhausting. You people must think that all cities are only 1 street wide. Nothing to see outside of that 1 street and if you end up even 1 block away, you’ll NEVER, under NO circumstances ever be able to see the stores on that 1 street. Do you have any idea how absurd this sounds?
Downtown SB is a small area. Unless you’re incredibly lazy and stubborn (typical), you can still see parts of it that you can’t drive your car in front of.
No wonder Americans are so fat, diseased and lazy.
Just weird.
Such a wonderful thing that they’ll be doing the Fiesta dog parade ON State Street. The way State Street is currently configured it cannot easily accommodate the Fiesta Parade or Solstice Celebration. To open State Street up to vehicles would require the SB City Council to admit that it was a mistake to do so in the first place. We recently took a short “Cali-style” road trip (no more than 8 hours driving back to home base) up the coast (Hwy 101 to SLO, Hwy 1 to Cambria, Hwy 46 to 101 cut back over hills to Monterey/Carmel via Carmel Valley Rd…..then up Hwy 1 to Pacifica). The coastal towns we visited/stayed were absolutely thriving. From here to Pacifica there are numerous coastal towns that had one thing in common: NONE of them closed off their downtown business areas to vehicles. I believe SB has something to learn from places like Pismo, Avila, SLO, Morro Bay, Carmel-by-the-Sea, Pacific Grove, Monterey, Santa Cruz, Half Moon Bay, Pacifica….all have robust downtown businesses with very few boarded up. Complete opposite to SB. Carp would NEVER consider converting Linden or Carp Ave. to pedestrian-only thoroughfare. Old Town Goleta continues to suffer from recent changes from four lanes to two, along with the back-in parking nonsense. I don’t believe State will ever be opened to vehicle traffic, so downtown SB will see more and more business closures despite the writing on the wall.
BEES –
1) What is the commercial rent in those northern cities compared to SB?
2) Carp won’t close Linden, because it’s basically the ONLY commercial street in town. We still have Chapala, Anacapa and Santa Barbara right there alongside State.
Comparing SB to tiny towns and places that are laid out differently (Monterrey, Santa Cruz, SLO) doesn’t make sense. We have a unique geography and city layout. Some businesses are thriving in the closed section and some are failing that are blocks/miles away from State. The insistence that failing business are directly caused by a lack of cars driving by them is weak and has no actual proof whatsoever.
Enjoy the beautiful town we have. I’m so sick of the constant crying about it.
Bend knees, expel flatulence.
The sentence “Bend knees, expel flatulence.” is grammatically understandable, but it sounds unusual and somewhat awkward in standard English.
Grammar
The sentence consists of two imperative clauses (commands):
“Bend knees”
“expel flatulence”
Imperative verbs (“bend,” “expel”) are acceptable without an explicit subject because the implied subject is “you.”
However, there are stylistic and grammatical issues:
In natural English, you would usually say “bend your knees” rather than “bend knees.”
“Expel flatulence” is technically grammatical, but highly formal and medical-sounding. Most speakers would say:
“pass gas”
“fart”
“release gas”
Punctuation
The comma creates a comma splice–like effect, though imperatives in sequence can sometimes be separated by commas in terse instructions. Still, the punctuation is not ideal.
More standard punctuation would be:
“Bend your knees and expel flatulence.”
“Bend your knees; expel flatulence.”
“Bend your knees. Expel flatulence.”
Tone and Style
The sentence has a deliberately clipped, pseudo-instructional tone that can sound humorous because:
“flatulence” is overly clinical,
while “bend knees” is unnaturally terse.
That contrast gives it an almost robotic or absurdist style.
It’s an oriental proverb.
🤣
I love it Anon – keep up the good work!
BeeKnee – Please provide economic data to substantiate your rambling dotard nonsense.