Santa Barbara Carnival Called Off Following Event Slow Down and immigration raids
John Palminteri
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Announced with enthusiasm and confetti on June 16 in Santa Barbara the Downtown Club has now canceled the Fiesta Carnival it had planned.
The event, Fiesta Carnival de Los Niños, was to coincide with the annual celebration of Old Spanish Days July 30- August 3. No other changes with the citywide events are expected. This will be the 101st year for Fiesta.
This year’s event will include a downtown Mercado, Fiesta Pequena at the Old Mission, Las Noches de Ronda at the Courthouse Sunken Gardens and El Desfile Historico (the famous Fiesta Parade) on Cabrillo Boulevard.
The Downtown Club on Canon Perdido Street had hoped to fill the gap when an official Fiesta Carnival plan could not be worked out this year. It had put together a smaller version with rides, food trucks and entertainment.
“Due to recent uncertainties in the community, and to assure the safety of the kids it serves, The Downtown Club is cancelling its planned Fiesta Carnival de Los Niños,” said Downtown Club Executive Director Mark Alvarado. “Because the carnival was planned as a major fundraising opportunity for The Club, we now need to step back and take into consideration how hosting a carnival today could possibly impact our fundraising.”
Alvarado is committed to all-inclusive events saying, “if we’re going to create a gathering, we want everyone to gather and if folks are, for whatever reason, staying home and not coming together then we don’t want to exclude folks.”
Putting on a carnival is a major investment, “and not turn a profit like this would damage our ability to continue serving the way that we have,” said Alvarado.
He noted over the weekend, “the swap we have at the high school, the (St. Joseph’s 68th annual) carnival in Carpinteria showed a lower attendance and it gave us a bit of cold feet in turning a profit as a non profit in an fundraiser environment we decided we didn’t want to take the risk.”
Steve Monser is a worker on Milpas Street who noticed the drop in pedestrian and vehicular traffic in the past few days. He is hoping there are more solutions like town hall meetings, so the public feels safe. “Anything that gets the community talking and bringing them together so they all understand where they are going works from me.”
In the long run, Alvarado says, “we’re a resilient community. We’re a good bunch of folks here when you are born and raised here in SB you have a legacy of experiences that can build upon being positive and bringing everyone together and bringing he community together. This is a difficult time we are going through and we will get past this.”
Full News Release:
THE DOWNTOWN CLUB CANCELS FIESTA CARNIVAL
Due to recent uncertainties in the community, and to assure the safety of the kids it
serves, The Downtown Club is cancelling its planned Fiesta Carnival de Los Niños.
This was not an easy decision, according to Club officials. Historically, the Club serves
under-resourced children. Its doors are open daily. Today, Club officials said the
community and the children served represent many of the diverse working families of
Santa Barbara. The safety and well-being of the kids remains The Downtown Club’s
number one priority.
“Because the carnival was planned as a major fundraising opportunity for The Club, we
now need to step back and take into consideration how hosting a carnival today could
possibly impact our fundraising,” said Downtown Club Executive Director Mark
Alvarado.
“We honor the mission of our club everyday by providing services and programs to
enrich the lives of our children. The unforeseen financial risk of staging a carnival now
could affect our ability to provide the needed services we offer our kids on a daily basis.”
Club officials said it looks to the future enthusiastically when a community atmosphere
would be more favorable for a family-oriented Carnival.
Downtown Club officials said they are appreciative and want to thank everyone in the
community who has been collaborating with The Club to make the Fiesta Carnival
special for the kids.
“We thank everyone for their continued support of our Downtown Club,” said Alvarado.
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