On Entertainment by Steven Libowitz
Sibilant Surprise: Santa Barbara’s Safe Social Distance Summer Solstice Celebration
Participants like Raven Wylde have sent in videos to partake in the virtual Solstice celebration (photo by Fritz Olengerger)
This year’s Solstice poster artist Katreece Montgomery (photo by Fritz Olengerger)
Steven Libowitz has reported on the arts and entertainment for more than 30 years; he has contributed to the Montecito Journal for more than 10 years.
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This year’s virtual Solstice theme is “Beautiful Earth” (photo by Robert Bernstein)
lot of things seem impossible to produce during a pandemic, most assuredly a parade, especially one as perennially popular as Santa Barbara’s Solstice Parade and Festival, which draws crowds of more
than 100,000 participants and spectators from town and all around. Held at high noon on the Saturday closest to June 21, Solstice (as the locals call it) is a day of pure delight, full of dancing, drumming and all sorts
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of imaginative arts, both human and papier-mâché, that moves and gyrates up State Street to arrive at Alameda Park for more partying on the longest day of the year. But even the most popular pagan ritual has given way to a pandemic, kowtowing to COVID-19 and stay-athome orders that have only recently started being relaxed. So the in-person version has been nixed for 2020. But that doesn’t mean the local Solstice spirit has been squashed. Indeed, the organizers decided to innovate and take this year’s theme of “Beautiful Earth” – which now seems even more appropriate as sheltering in place has led people to rediscover nature and let the planet begin to heal – into the online world. And while government orders to combat the novel coronavirus prevented activities at the Community Arts Workshop where normally in-house and ad hoc artists construct massive floats, produce life-sized puppets and concoct crazy costumes, a different approach took shape. “There was no way we weren’t going to celebrate Solstice,” explained Ricardo Morrison, Solstice’s longtime artistic director. “So we had to come up with some way to have a parade when you can’t actually come together.” So this year’s parade features a pre-recorded roster of homemade mini-floats fashioned by regular folks from found objects or other paraphernalia – Morrison himself created a YouTube video showing how to construct one and then how to capture it with a mobile phone’s camera – which will be interspersed with individuals
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Watch Claudia Bratton and other participants at high noon on June 20 on the Summer Solstice Celebration website (photo by Fritz Olengerger)
and ensembles celebrating at home or in parks (one even shot on the beach and in the water) plus a selection of still photos. It’s the result of a call to action for participants to get creative for the virtual version that was answered enthusiastically. “It’s been incredible, because we’ve received a lot of video submissions from artists, families, individuals, ensembles,” Morrison said. “It’s a lot of people who are normally part of the parade, and quite a few who are new.” One of the unexpected results was hearing from past participants who no longer live in the area, including Laura Smith, who now calls St. Paul, Minnesota, her home, and receiving submissions from a foreign country. “It’s a really wide spectrum, from professional stilt puppet makers in England to kids pushing a mini-float on the lawn,” Morrison marveled. “It’s truly capturing the spirit of Solstice in the variety of expressions of creativity.” Among the contributors, Morrison said, are fire jugglers, drum ensembles, Brazilian capoeira dancers and an annual favorite in World Dance for Humanity. “What they did was use a single
ENTERTAINMENT Page 284 18 – 25 June 2020
