The Birth of Old Spanish Days

Historical Grand Pageants Give Rise to Fiesta

by Michael Redmon

Eighty-two years ago a group of Santa Barbara businessmen
gathered at the S.B. School of the Arts at 936 Santa Barbara
Street. The purpose: to organize a city-wide festival to celebrate
the opening of the new Lobero Theatre, scheduled for August 4,
1924. The group aimed to “appeal to the carnival spirit lurking in
everyone and at the same time perpetuate Santa Barbara’s
picturesque early-days atmosphere.” The organizers had grand plans
to make the festival an annual affair that “will in time rival the
celebrated New Orleans Mardi Gras or the Pasadena Carnival of
Roses.” So was born Santa Barbara’s Old Spanish Days Fiesta.

Why did this committee embrace from the beginning the idea of a
celebration with an “early-days atmosphere,” a decision that met
with virtually unanimous community approval? The committee was
following a tradition, decades-long, of civic celebrations that had
played upon historical themes. The Santa Barbara Mission Centennial
in 1886, the series of floral festivals of the 1890s, and the
welcoming celebration for the U.S. Navy’s Great White Fleet in 1908
had all incorporated historical themes. The highlight of the latter
was a parade along Cabrillo Boulevard with equestrians decked out
in costumes of early California. The grand prize float was a
replica of Mission Santa Barbara made of 200,000 white roses. An
even more immediate inspiration for the 1924 Fiesta committee,
however, was the formation of the La Primavera Association in
September 1919.