Off the Beaten Path: Unofficial Fiesta Events in Santa Barbara

As Santa Barbara’s Fiesta celebration gets bigger each year, the party itself seems to be expanding further outside the sphere of “official” events organized by the Old Spanish Days organization, with impromptu concerts, group bike rides, pop-up stands, and non-sponsored gatherings becoming increasingly popular among partygoers in early August.

Some of these events popped up organically over the years, such as the annual Fiesta Cruiser Ride, a group ride started by a group of bikers in 1979 as a way to get together and enjoy the summer sun on a day when the whole city was outside celebrating. Since then, the annual ride has attracted large groups each year, retracing the same route of that first ride from Stearns Wharf to the liquor store on Modoc Street then down to Goleta Beach to party until the sun goes down. (This year’s ride will begin with a meetup at the Dolphin Statue at noon on Sunday, August 9.)

Some unofficial events are remnants of traditions that have evolved over the years. The Santa Barbara Rodeo at Earl Warren Showgrounds, which is unaffiliated with the Old Spanish Days brand, popped up after the official organization moved its family Stock Horse and Rodeo Show up to Santa Ynez following a disagreement over the future of rodeo events.

The official rodeo was nearly canceled in 2025, before the two groups came up with alternative plans. Now, Old Spanish Days holds its family-friendly rodeo at the Santa Ynez Valley Equestrian Center, while Earl Warren Showgrounds hosts its own professional rodeo the week prior to Fiesta.

Other hotspots, like the mercado at Our Lady of Guadalupe, have become a part of the greater tradition of Fiesta, despite being run independently by the local parish community. The five-day mercado at Guadalupe has become a favorite among the Latino community, due to its focus on authentic Mexican food, games, and entertainment.

Another community-focused event for families is the Downtown Club of Santa Barbara’s Fiesta Children’s Carnival. The children’s festival helps raise funds for the club’s youth programs, and will have family-friendly activities such as carnival rides, games, and entertainment. (The carnival will be open from noon to 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and noon to 5 p.m on Sunday.)

In recent years, with State Street closed off to traffic, impromptu street parties and bar-hopping crowds have become the norm. On the opening Wednesday night, crowds flood into M. Special to watch musician Spencer the Gardner play his first show of a busy week. And on any given night during the five days of fiesta, huge crowds gather outside the bars and dance to live music blasting from all directions.

Perhaps the most important unofficial tradition of Fiesta is the cracking of confetti cascarones. The hand-painted, confetti-filled eggs are sold by the caseload, and are available at pop-up stands found on nearly every corner of the city. It’s nearly impossible to imagine Fiesta without confetti — sprinkled over hair, clothes, and streets — and the vendors themselves are unsung heroes of the community.

But as the official Old Spanish Days organization expands, some of these vendors are feeling left out of the party. When it was announced that this year’s De la Guerra mercado would be expanding onto State Street this year, some longtime cascarón vendors were forced to move from locations they had spent years occupying without issue.

One of these vendors, Florentino Jimenez, says he has been selling confetti-filled eggs with his wife each year for more than 25 years. Every year, they’ve gotten up at the crack of dawn to make sure they were able to claim the same spot on the corner of De la Guerra and State Street, a primetime space where they could catch people leaving the mercado.

This year, Jimenez and the rest of the traditional vendors were disappointed to find their usual spots occupied by approved merchandise booths and an official Old Spanish Days information table. 

Jimenez and his wife set up at a new location two blocks down the street, where most of this year’s vendors have moved their stands. “It’s not as busy down here,” he said. “We were at the same spot for years, and they changed it.”

The cascarón vendors aren’t the only ones feeling left out of the official Fiesta celebration. Representatives from the Restorative Justice Education Center, the nonprofit that currently operates out of the historic La Casa de la Raza building, said they were shocked to find out they would not be able to set up their traditional tri-tip torta booth at the De la Guerra mercado.

This was the first time in more than 50 years that La Casa de la Raza’s tri-tip fundraiser booth was left out of the official Old Spanish Days mercado. For the past six years, the new nonprofit group has used the Fiesta booth to help with operational costs.

“Old Spanish Days often speaks about preserving tradition,” said Jennifer Sanchez, director of the Restorative Justice Education Center. “Tradition is found in the organizations that have quietly served this community for generations.”

Sanchez says the group’s application was denied by Old Spanish Days’ mercado team. In an email, the Old Spanish Days mercado team offered an explanation that the decision was due to “operational considerations” in the interest of “maintaining a consistent and manageable event environment for all participants.”

In the email to the group, Old Spanish Days’ mercado team explicitly states there would be “no booth space” for the Restorative Justice Education Center or any other affiliated groups. 

“We were told the decision involved ‘you and your affiliated organizations,” Sanchez said. “We are proud of those affiliations. They represent organizations and people who have dedicated their lives to serving migrant families, providing legal aid, feeding neighbors, and building a stronger Santa Barbara … If there is no longer room for that kind of tradition, we’ll continue celebrating it ourselves.”

The Restorative Justice Education Center will be selling tri-tip tortas from a new booth outside Son y Sabor at 409 State Street, each day of Fiestas through Sunday.