‘Celebrate Traditions’, Old Spanish Days unveils 2018 Fiesta theme

Celebrate Traditions — that’s the theme of this year’s Fiesta and words that will set the tone for this summer’s celebrations.

2018 Old Spanish Days La Presidente Denise Sanford unveiled the year’s Fiesta theme on Wednesday at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse surrounded by members of the extended Old Spanish Days family and a row of reporters.

“Traditions are so important to me ever since I was a little girl,” said Sanford. “My family celebrates traditions with everything that we do. The traditions that we celebrate in this community, the families, our collaborative partners, the visitors that come here specifically for Fiesta, those are all traditions and they mean so much to me and our community.”

“My hope…is for our community to embrace our traditions, keep them close to our hearts, in order to pass them down to the generations that follow us,” explained Sanford.

Being involved in the dance and entertainment aspect of Fiesta for years, Sanford says she is really looking forward to the Spirit of Fiesta auditions and ‘La Primavera’ event where she will be unveiling her poster and Fiesta pin. She promises that “it’ll be something very different.”

But the one thing she is looking forward to the most is delivering a message of hope and healing to the community.

“I do feel a big responsibility and so does Old Spanish Days, and we’re prepared to help in any way we can to help bring visitors here. To say, ‘Santa Barbara is alive and well, come visit us, come support us, come stay at our hotels, come eat at our restaurants, support our small businesses and just support our community.’ So we’re prepared to do what we can and what it will take to get that job done this year,” said Sanford. “That’s, I think the most important part of it [Fiesta] this year.”

This year marks the 94th edition of Fiesta and it runs from August 1-5, 2018. For more information visit http://oldspanishdays-fiesta.org.