Artist Elmer Landman is using an electric saw to cut through some thick cardboard. He’s making wings. That’s not the crazy part. He’s making the wings for a life sized version of Pegasus, the mythical flying horse.
"There's going to be a rider on Pegasus. Basically, it's made out of cardboard box, cardboard that I compressed with Elmer's glue. It's solid, almost like a block of wood," said Landman.
Imaginations are running wild, as final preparations are underway for Santa Barbara’s one of a kind ode to the start of summer, the Santa Barbara Summer Solstice Parade.
Pegasus is perhaps a perfect character for this year’s parade, which is themed “Flights of Fancy”. Here, at the Santa Barbara Summer Solstice Workshop on Garden Street, people are making the costumes and floats for the parade. Barbara Logan is making bird masks, and costumes for one of the groups.
"This is for the pass the hat group for the Summer Solstice Parade," said Logan. "What we do is dress up the mayor, and City Council as big birds, and they go down the parade route and gather funds to help pay for the parade."
This is a big year the Solstice celebration. It’s celebrating its 50th anniversary. If you’ve lived in the region for a while, you probably know about the parade, which is like a PG Mardi Gras parade.
But do you know how it started? It’s actually is the result of an artsy birthday party.
Emily Alessio is the Education, and Visitor Experience Manager with the Santa Barbara Historical Museum. The museum is celebrating the big anniversary with an exhibition called “Here Comes The Sun…Celebrating 50 Years of Santa Barbara Summer Solstice."
Sun…Celebrating 50 Years of Santa Barbara Summer Solstice.
"Michael Gonzales, he was the founder of Solstice," said Alessio. "If you're from Santa Barbara, and you go downtown, you know you see characters. Michael Gonzales was one of those characters...he was an artist, and painter, and mime."
In 1974, to celebrate his birthday, he and two friends decided they would parade up State Street in costume, and dance, and interact with people as they passed by.
They had so much fun, they did it again in 1975 and 1976, with more friends joining each year. In 1976, they actually got a permit to do a parade on the sidewalk.
It kept growing, and by 1977, it was a parade.
But, not everyone was on board with it in the early days. Some businesses were unhappy with State Street being closed for hours on a Saturday during peak tourist season. And, the City of Santa Barbara wanted Solstice to help with the costs of closing streets, and having extra police officers on duty. But, over time it became accepted one of the community’s premiere events.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary, the museum created the exhibition. It worked with the Summer Solstice organization to get artifacts.
It features the official Solstice posters from 1977 to today, hundred of photos, videotaped stories from solstice participants, and some of the masks and other items created for the parade over the decades. The exhibition runs through June 27.
About a thousand people are expected to take part in this year’s parade, with an estimated 100,000 spectators watching it.
It begins at noon Saturday, at Ortega and Santa Barbara Streets.It heads northwest on Santa Barbara Street, ending in Alameda Park. There will once again be a three day long Solstice Festival in the park, with live music and other activities Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
