Mercado de la Guerra opens with food and entertainment downtown Santa Barbara for Old Spanish Days
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – With the opening of the Mercado de la Guerra, one of the very popular food and entertainment areas for Old Spanish Days will be open from Wednesday through Saturday.
A second location the Mercado de la Playa will open Thursday until Sunday at La Playa stadium.
The Mercados are free.
Downtown, there will be many booths of locally produced food including tortas, tacos, taquitos, papusas, and tamales along with hot dogs and ice cream.
They are benefiting non-profits in Santa Barbara. Some say this is their biggest fundraiser of the year.
Throughout the day there will be live music with mainly dancing in the mid-day and early afternoon followed by live bands in the evening and at night. The entertainment is at no cost.
Downtown worker Lluvia Pacheco was one of the first customers to order some food. "Yes I raced to the plaza for my lunch break."
It's a Santa Barbara tradition for 99 years as part of the annual Old Spanish Days."I love it i think it shows appreciation to the heritage and the meaning and it just brings the community together, especially with the crisis right now ya know."
Santa Barbara resident Bob Dickey leads tour groups and said, "everything here is representing our history you know so just coming through here you get a sense of history in Santa Barbara."
The plaza booths have been redesigned this year with colorful signs and on-the-spot kitchens were running hot with orders.
We found some some big eaters in line.
Carpinteria resident Don Risdon, "the first thing was that corn on the cob. Then I went for the corn in the cup and then I went for a torta. Then I went for some carnitas tacos and I am waiting for the taquitos and the guacamole. Holy smokes,. it's Viva la Fiesta!
. There's a mix at the mercado you can't find elsewhere. "We always get the taquitos and we always get the churros we come for the ambiance this is Santa Barbara," said Dickey.
An annual favorite is the classic tri-tip torta.
Baron Ron Heron, a long time radio host and podcaster said, "Yes you can crawl into that sucker and sleep the night in a tent but I ate it instead and I'm feeling good."
It was a busy first day with solid crowds.
Santa Barbara Mayor Randy Rowse said, "this is impressive. This is one of the most energetic fully attended mercado's this early that I've seen in all my time. It's good stuff."
Downtown worker Christian Leon, said, "Fiesta. You can't miss out on this. It's really good! "
You can come for the food, or the friends, but many want to support the non-profits running the booths.
Risdon said, "both. I go for the food and I support that non-profit with all I can give."
With so many choices, you might want to forget about counting the calories for a few days.
Rowse said, "it's not spa food. We are not here to lose weight today."
For more coverage on Fiesta and to see the full schedule, click here.
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