The party’s over, but the Fiesta cleaning in Santa Barbara will take days
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - There was no shortage of people at every venue involved in the 2022 Old Spanish Days celebration in Santa Barbara. The 98th annual event is over, but the cleaning continues for days, if not weeks.
The crowd estimates at some of the sites including the Courthouse Sunken Gardens, the mercados and the State Street promenade were in the thousands.
Cleaning took place nightly, but it will take a much bigger effort and hours of crew time to get the area tidy once again.This comes at a time when the City of Santa Barbara is making a funded deep-cleaning commitment on a regular basis, not occasionally.
Crews were out at 6 a.m. with blowers, power washers and street sweepers starting the process in the core area of downtown where thousands of people traversed back and forth.
The Big Green Cleaning Company was working Sunday in De la Guerra Plaza under the direction of Old Spanish Days after the mercado booths and stage were removed. The crew power washed the streets and sidewalks and also collected the runoff to keep it from going into the storm drain.
They completed the project in time to return the plaza back to the city for the start of the week.
Among those helping to break down the booths, and store them until next year, were football players from Santa Barbara High School. They also received community work credits.
