Old Spanish Days Fiesta
Near Santa Barbara, California
Every August, Santa Barbara throws one of the oldest and largest festivals in the American West, Old Spanish Days, known to everyone here simply as Fiesta. It began in nineteen twenty four, in part to celebrate the reopening of the rebuilt Lobero Theatre and, frankly, to draw summer tourists. Organizers modeled it on the fandangos of the old ranchero era, when California landowners threw open their estates for days of music and dancing.
The centerpiece is El Desfile Histórico, the Historical Parade, one of the largest equestrian parades in the country. The very first one, in nineteen twenty four, was organized by local civic leaders, who chose to present a living portrait of old Santa Barbara. To this day the parade rolls with horse drawn carriages, palomino horses, and floats reenacting scenes from the region's Spanish and Mexican past.
Confetti filled eggshells called cascarones shower the crowds, and the whole city seems to dress in flamenco ruffles and mariachi brass. Fiesta has been criticized for romanticizing the colonial era while sidelining the Chumash story, but it remains a beloved, deeply rooted civic tradition more than a century running.
