Current Happenings
Best Fest 2023
You voted for them, now celebrate them at the return of Best Fest: A Celebration of the 2023 Best of Santa Barbara®. Early bird tickets on sale now through Sept 28, 2023. More information here.
Burrito Week Returns September 21 – 27, 2023 with burritos from 20 local restaurants. Stay Tuned for Details.
Current Happenings
Giving Tuesday
This Giving Tuesday, the Santa Barbara Independent is encouraging our readers to participate in Giving Tuesday by highlighting area nonprofits and their great work. This is just a sliver of the nonprofits doing good work in the Santa Barbara community.
The Great Holiday Giveaway
The holiday season is finally here! We have partnered with six local businesses to host our annual Great Holiday Giveaway!
The giveaway runs from December 7 – 18. Click the button below to see what business are participating this year, and what great prizes they’re giving away!
Annual Events & Projects
Get involved in the Indy community.
Burger Week
We team up with eateries all over Santa Barbara County to bring you 7 days of $10 burgers. Vegans, meat lovers, and everyone in between can find something delicious and up their alley. Burger Week 2023 dates March 2 -8.
The Indy: A Podcast
The Indy is the Santa Barbara Independent’s podcast, hosted by Alexandra Goldberg. Wanna listen to The Indy on your favorite streaming platform? You can find our podcasts on Apple, Spotify, and Google.
St. Patrick's Day Stroll
Annual stroll down State Street on March 17. Join us in 2024 for our annual stroll.
Best Fest
Mingle and boogie with with some of the finest folks in town as we celebrate the winners of our annual Best of Santa Barbara® Readers’ Poll.
Best of Santa Barbara® Readers' Poll
Every October, we publish our Best of Santa Barbara® issue with over 200 categories voted on by readers. Nominations for 2023 will open in June and final ballot voting will open in August.
Santa Barbara Gives!
Santa Barbara Gives! is a year-end giving campaign for Santa Barbara nonprofits born from a partnership between the Santa Barbara Independent and The Fund for Santa Barbara. The goal is to create a new network of donors for participating nonprofits, make it easy for people to donate via SBGives.org, and inspire first-time donors to support a wide variety of causes in Santa Barbara. A project-based program, Santa Barbara Gives! donors are motivated by both the overall mission of an organization and a specific social change project.
Pints for Press
Listen and learn from our editorial staff as they go “behind the pages” of our cover stories. Events will be held regularly. Proceeds from the event will go towards supporting journalism.
Local Heroes
Local Heroes is our annual celebration of our fantastic neighbors. In 1986, the first-ever issue of the Santa Barbara Independent was dedicated to showcasing the amazingly selfless people who call Santa Barbara home. We christened those honorees as our “Local Heroes,” and a Thanksgiving week tradition was born.
Burrito Week
In celebration of this burrito bounty, the Santa Barbara Independent launched our first-ever Burrito Week in 2021. Stay tuned for 2023 Burrito Week beginning Sept 21, 2023. Are you a restaurant interested in participating, contact advertising@independent.com.
Indy Hops
Santa Barbara's month-long beer crawl hosted by the Santa Barbara Independent. Next event: July 2023
Quizzes & Contests
Test your Fiesta Trivia or win a pair of tickets to see the Santa Barbara Foresters! We host a variety of fun quizzes and contests throughout the year. Click here to explore our most recent line up. Stay up to date on all quizzes and contests we are running by signing up for our Extra! newsletter. Interested in partnering with us on a quiz or contest? Email us at contest@independent.com
Indy Awards
The Indy Awards is our annual celebration of Santa Barbara’s fantastic theater and dance community.
Backyard Brunch
Eat and drink from over 30 of Santa Barbara’s hotspots as they dish out brunch under the trees. Proceeds from the event go towards supporting the Santa Barbara Gives! campaign.
Resources
Santa Barbara Independent Tickets
The Santa Barbara Independent Tickets is a free self-service ticketing system, backed by marketing muscle and sales expertise.
Hutton Parker Foundation Media Grants
The Santa Barbara Independent and Hutton Parker Foundation have partnered to create a unique Media Grant opportunity to benefit local area nonprofit agencies by providing a professionally produced newspaper insert specific to selected applicants.
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