Honorary Vaquero
“If you can’t do it on horseback, it’s not worth doing.” So says this year’s Fiesta Rodeo Honorary Vaquero, Fred
Year: 2006
Quote of the Week
‘I can definitely see a different way of dealing with someone dropping a needle in a park besides giving them a new one, but it’s not politically correct to say it.’
-Fifth District Supervisor Joni Gray, on the needle-exchange program.
Fiesta 2006
Cover image courtesy S.B. Historical Society
Born out of the tradition of history-based civic celebrations, Fiesta became an annual event in 1924 and continues to be a grand tribute to Santa Barbara’s past. In this special issue, you’ll find a complete schedule of events to the weekend’s festivities, everything you can expect to see in the parade, plus the scoop on the spirits and El Presidente Roger Perry. Also in this issue, Barney Brantingham recalls some
of the more memorable Fiesta mishaps; Bob Isaacson dishes on the rodeo; and Walter A. Tompkins separates truth from legend in an excerpt from his posthumously published book, The Yankee Barbare±os. ¡Viva la Fiesta!
LOMPOC FEST:
For those seeking an escape from Fiesta, head to Lompoc’s annual Brushes & Blues arts festival, which goes down this weekend on Sunday, August 6, from 11 a.m-5 p.m. at Ken Adams Park. There’ll be wine-tasting, blues music, and paintings from the county’s best artists.
Barney’s Top 10 Fiesta Food Memories
This is my 46th year of gobbling everything edible Fiesta has to offer, and the memories come flooding back like
Old Spanish Days Soundtrack
Spencer the Gardener Releases Fiesta Album
Citizen’s Alert
Fri., Aug. 4
Goleta Valley Beautiful: Help plant new native trees and clean up litter and graffiti in Goleta. Call 252-1952 or visit goletavalleybeautiful.org.
Remember the Opera, Forget the King
THE ACADEMY IS : : In addition to the regular schedule of masterclasses, the Music Academy will offer up the Academy Young Artists in a free Community Concert at 2 p.m. today, Thursday, August 3, at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. As usual for these affairs, the program is potluck. The Academy Young Artists-aka students-will also offer a Picnic Concert this evening at 7:30 p.m. in Abravanel Hall.
¡Viva la M°sica!
FIESTA M’SICA ROUND-UPPA: There are three main stages at Fiesta every year: the De la Guerra Plaza stage, the Plaza del Mar stage down at Pershing Park, and the Mercado del Norte stage, located up State Street in MacKenzie Park. All three stages are jam-packed with dancing action all day long from Thursday, August 3 through Saturday night, August 5, and there’s plenty of music-both of the Latin and traditional American varieties-to keep taco-stuffing faces entertained, at least at the DLG and Norte stages. What follows is a roundup of the musical highlights from those two venues.
Spirits of the Land
The Public Addresses Proposed Naples Development
There was standing room only for the last of the 200 people to turn out for a public comment hearing hosted by Santa Barbara County on the proposed luxury home development at the Santa Barbara Ranch. For more than four hours last Thursday night, the county’s Planning and Development staff heard from student activists, eighth-generation Chumash elders, environmental lawyers, UCSB professors, and former state park rangers, all taking the mike to address the county’s 1,084-page draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) on proposed Naples development. After nearly one year of research, the draft EIR was released late last month and identified several Class I-or significant-environmental impacts in Orange County developer Matt Osgood’s plans for the southernmost gateway of the Gaviota Coast. Osgood hopes to put between 54 and 72 houses-ranging in size from 3,700- to 13,300-square-feet-on the historic several-hundred-acre Santa Barbara Ranch and the adjacent Dos Pueblos Ranch. “For the most part, what I have heard tonight, I take dead serious,” concluded Steve Chase, the county’s deputy director of the Planning and Development Department, shortly after the last public comment.
