The Summer Solstice

I had never seen so many people in Santa Barbara before. State street is usually full of people on Fridays & Saturdays - but 100,000 people? That was something new and crazy, for a city whose population falls below that figure!

Yesterday, Santa Barbara held the Summer Solstice Celebration. Its an yearly celebration and the parade is the crux of the event. There is music, color and atmosphere - all you need in a festival.

It apparently began in 1974 as the birthday celebration of some local artist. Now its a full blown festival with a parade, live music, and loads of food.



Does this picture remind you of something? These girls are getting ready to dance. To me, it was very similar to a Bollywood dance sequence. In fact, the music was so lively with all the drums and tribal themes that it seemed very familiar to me!

All in all it seemed like a family event with a lot of resident attendance with bedsheets, foldable chairs and the works. After the parade everyone headed out to the park to get some grub and passively listen to the music ( felt sorry for those guys, was anyone listening? ) The food options were unfortunately a bit limited - I was hoping there would be more street food kinda stuff.

It was a fun event and I would definitely hope there are more similar events in the future(looking forward to Fiesta)

How would I, being someone from India, compare this event to our numerous festivals? Well, there could be multiple responses. India has so many festivals which people would celebrate even after an Armageddon. Most people in India don't care why they celebrate it. (Don't tell me you like Diwali cos Ram defeated Ravan or Krishna defeated Narakasura - Duh! Its the firecrackers, dumbass!) And so we see an event here which again, is celebrated again and again every year - the only reason being to get people together and have fun. Amazing na :) Maybe people could start celebrating Holi here. Whaddaya think?

|Photo Courtesy of Manik|