ON the Beat | Of Mariachi, Montecito and Music Academy’s Final Chord

This edition of ON the Beat was originally emailed to subscribers on August 3, 2023. To receive Josef Woodard’s music newsletter in your inbox each Thursday, sign up at independent.com/newsletters.

Viva LaLa Landing

Through this weekend, revelry, street gastronomy, and generally approved party-time behavior descends on our town. Throngs, both locals and out-of-towners, will hit the Fiesta parade threading along Cabrillo Boulevard on Friday afternoon. They will flock the several Mercados (including a newcomer, El Mercado del Playa, at the Leadbetter Beach-adjacent Del Playa Stadium parking lot), for food, music, dance, and chilling/loitering. Cultural respects and rituals are also stirred into the mix — depending on one’s level of engagement in Santa Barbara’s annual “Old Spanish Days” tradition.

One of the great traditions during Fiesta time takes place up on the hill and apart from the official Fiesta zone, in the form of the Mariachi Festival, at the Santa Barbara Bowl on Saturday, August 5. Now up to its 26th annual event, and with a high-profile respectability in the Mariachi world far beyond Southern California, the epic mini-festival runs almost five hours and funnels profits into scholarships for college-bound youths. On the roster this year are Edith Marquez, El Mariachi del Divo, Majo Aguilar, Mariachi Femenil Nuevo Tecalitlan, Mariachi Angeles, and Mariachi Garibaldi.

Call it a celebration of “Old Jalisco Days,” given Mariachi’s birthplace in the mid-19th century. Info here.