You Can Be a Part of Santa Barbara’s Summer Solstice 2026

COME ON BY THE WORKSHOP AND CHECK IT OUT! YOU CAN BE A PART OF SOLSTICE!

Santa Barbara Summer Solstice is in the final stretch to get everything built and ready for the parade on June 20! Everyone is welcome and help is very much needed! You can stop by and take a look at the Workshop at the corner of Ortega Street and Garden Street.

Here I am posting my workshop photos of progress arranged in galleries by day.

The theme this year is “Wave”, and that can cover a wide range of meanings.

Polly and Emily Carey and many supportive friends are back with another huge paper mache creation. Paper mache is a lot of work, but it is also the most expressive art form in Solstice. This one will be a giant gramophone! Making sound waves!

Here Cory is later painting the gramophone speaker.

Dragon brought new energy to the Workshop in recent years and he posed with queen of the Mask Shop Emma-Jane. This photo was taken a year ago. Sadly, Dragon was recently killed. Hit by a car on Los Carneros Road in Goleta. He is missed very much. There will be a memorial float for him. And also for Kenji, who also died this year.

Here are some other paper mache projects in process.

Here Nic Caldwell is artist in residence, creating paper mache with helpers. Nic has been a valuable helper in the past. Her project this year is Mer Mayhem.

Last year she put in a lot of time helping Jonathan Smith with his earthquake project. And helping Mae Logan with her Murmuration of Crows. The Murmuration is being revived this year by Olivia (left) and another helper to be displayed in the park.

Irene Ramirez is back again as an artist in residence with her own new creation.

Pali officially retired after last Solstice. But he is out of retirement now, creating the “Sundance Wave of the Giant Water Dragon”. It is based on a dragon piece he created many years ago, but it is completely new this year with some additional cool bits!

When he announced his retirement I thought I would have to find a new ensemble this year. Polly and Emily were happy to have me. But then I found out Pali was back in action and I decided to stay with him yet another year!

Pali kindly gave me a way cool headdress to wear. I went right out to test how it worked while riding my unicycle. It was a bit of a challenge, but I think I can make it work!

Credit for this amazing headdress goes to the very creative and skilled artist Claudia, who also helped Pali last year.

Marie-Pier Tremblay is also back for another year of artistic creation. Her project this year is called Iggi Baba Portal.

Sophia (in yellow) is helping Eileen create “Extending the Olive Branch of Peace”. We noted that Eileen’s last name Olivieri means “olive”. This is called an “aptronym” and “Nominative Determinism” is a theory of why this seems to happen a lot.

I met Hope Christofferson at the Orchid Festival a few months ago and I was honored that she remembered me! Her elaborate project there was Orchid Island. She has her own big project for Solstice, too. Here she paused to pose with her helper friend Talia.

And she also posed with long time Solstice man of many talents and skills Riccardo Morrison. Riccardo has decades of experience building things and also organizing the parade.

Long time builders and artists Greg and Henry were back, building one of the huge music floats.

Dan and Nobile worked on their Kitty Pool project.

Elvi and Carlos are back for another year of Solstice creativity.

Justine Pannier is managing the parade this year to make sure things keep moving and to minimize the gaps. It is all about keeping the audience satisfied! Here she posed with me down the street at SBCAST.

AGAIN: COME ON BY THE WORKSHOP AND CHECK IT OUT! YOU CAN BE A PART OF SOLSTICE!

Again, there are many ways to get involved in Solstice. If you have a big idea, you can create your own ensemble. An ensemble does not necessarily involve a float. It can be a group of people in costume doing a performance. Many ensembles are dance groups. Others provide music. Some years ago several of us unicyclists played a game with several other people dressed as traffic cones, forming a slalom course that made its way up the street!

An ensemble can even be just one person inside some interesting float.

Most people prefer to join an ensemble that is already underway. You can help build floats, sew costumes and help with painting, carving, gluing or making paper mache. If you don’t know how, you can learn new skills! I already knew how to do construction with power tools, painting and paper mache. But I decided to learn something new. The costume shop people were very patient with teaching me to use the sewing machines and cut out patterns in fabric.

Pullers are needed to pull the floats up the parade route and back afterwards. In some cases that pays money and you get to be in the parade!

There truly is a place for everyone in the community to be a part of this community event!

The Workshop is at the corner of Ortega and Garden Street. It is open every day as it gets closer to parade time. Come by and see the excitement, energy and creativity! And feel free to lend a hand! Everyone is welcome! Here is the Solstice web site to register or for more information!
https://www.solsticeparade.com/

I will end with a few more Workshop photos.

Ashley is a very talented helper.

As is Richard

– Robert Bernstein