The Downtown Organization of Santa Barbara’s Staff and Board of Directors is pleased to share our series of holiday happenings: Downtown Santa Barbara: “Season of Cheer”. Please join us and mark your calendars for one or more of these happenings in November and December. All activities are free unless noted.

Our Season of Cheer festivities kick off with a free Candlelight Concert Series each Wednesday, November 9 - December 14 (with the exception of Nov. 23rd). Enjoy live entertainment surrounded by holiday candles on the steps of the historic Santa Barbara Museum of Art from 5-7 pm. Grab a delicious meal from one of the many nearby restaurants or a beverage at Mosaic Locale (Draughtsmen Aleworks, Old Town Coffee, Buena Onda Empanadas). Take $2 off beer and wine from 5 pm until close, $1 off orders of 3 empanadas or more! Dress warmly. Free seating will be provided. Full concert details available here.

The Season of Cheer series continues with additional activations including a Friendsgiving Rock the Block: block party Thursday, November 17, 5-8 PM on the 700 and 800 blocks of State Street. Enjoy live music, performances, arts & crafts, themed photo ops. Youth ages 6-10 may also participate in the annual Prince & Fairy Art Contest. The winners of the Prince & Fairy Art Contest will get the privilege of lighting the annual Christmas Tree at the December 2 Tree Lighting Ceremony. (more details below). All Rock the Block events are free and open to the entire community.

The 1st Thursday Art Walk will be hosting an open-air Holiday Market as well as over 20+ business and gallery venues with live music, art, and wine on December 1, 5-8 PM. Free and open to the entire community.

The following day, Friday, December 2 from 5-8 PM we will host a Christmas Tree Lighting & Block Party: “Winter Wonderland”; on the 1300 Block of State Street (near the Arlington Theatre) including a Santa meet and greet, live music with DJ Darla Bea, performances by San Marcos High School Band and more. Free and open to the entire community. The Christmas Tree is once again donated from Consumer Fire Products, Inc and sourced from a sustainable farm in Oregon.

Don’t miss some of the final celebrations of the season including a Downtown Community Holiday Mixer at Broad Street Oyster Company (418 State Street) on Monday, December 13, 5:30-7:30 PM. The $25 ticket price includes a drink and appetizers.

Saturday, December 17, 12-3 pm enjoy a free Big Brass Tuba Christmas concert in Storke Placita (between 722-724 State Street) and the Youth Makers Market on that same block.

Holiday lights and décor will be up from thanksgiving through January 1. Stay tuned for our Shop Local holiday gift guide for unique gifts for all the special people in your life.

Thank You to our Sponsors:

Consumer Fire Products, Inc.

Montecito Bank & Trust, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, City of Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara Public Library, UCSB Athletics, Smart Media Solutions, KCSB, Move SB County

Friendsgiving Block Party located on the 700 & 800 Blocks of State Street

Cost: FREE

Bring your family and friends downtown for another block party on State Street! This is the latest Block Party in the Rock The Block Series themed Friendsgiving. Win gifts and prizes from local businesses, enjoy games and activities including basketball with UCSB Gauchos, tossing the football around with the YFL Super Bowl winning Santa Barbara Saints, autumn themed relay races, face painting, crafting stations and much more! There will be vendors, Library on The Go, live music, and a DJ set presented by EOS Lounge.

Writers of all levels are invited to participate in this informal exploration of the Museum's galleries as an impetus to writing. Monthly sessions are led by a visiting writer who begins with a conversation and prompt, partially inspired by works on view. Participants write on their own, then reconvene to share and comment on each other's work. Please bring something on which to write.

In November, award-winning author and UCR Associate Professor of Creative Writing, Andrew Winer, leads a session inspired by Eugène Delacroix's Winter: Juno and Aeolus (1856), on view in Ridley-Tree Gallery.

Duckwrth’s live show is a must see for anyone looking to have a super good night. LA-based recording artist, musician and designer, Duckwrth, born Jared Lee, has quickly risen up the ranks as a promising star in the future of music. Known for his genre-bending sound and feel good music, Duckwrth has amassed over 400 million cumulative streams across his catalog and a cult following across the globe. His collection of critically acclaimed projects including his latest album titled “SuperGood” (2020), has transcended streaming platforms, received praise by countless press and brands alike and has been featured in placements across film, television and brand campaigns, globally. His apparent hard work and unique style and aesthetic has led the rapper to becoming a beacon for individual expression and an international touring staple, with sold out headline shows across the world, breakout festival appearances and a recent stint with global pop star Billie Eilish on her “Happier than Ever” tour. 

This wonderful community event will feature 40 years of Spencer’s music career starting with his local iconic band, The Tan. These local heroes ruled the Pacific Coast playing every house-party, high school, and bar mitzvah from Mesa Lane to Trestles. Spanning into the 90’s, Spencer created the massively popular local dance band appropriately called The Wedding Band, this is where Spencer began cultivating (pun intended) his own style of mixing dance, pop, horns, hip-hop, salsa, with old secret agent movies (and maybe a little Star Trek). Mix up all of this and ABRACADABRA, you have Spencer The Gardener! Spanning more than 30 years (with several of the same members), Spencer and his band have been in more fiesta photos than any other local celebrity, even John Palminteri!

Spencer The Gardener remains a celebrated live musical experience and is still packing house-parties and theaters up and down the coast. But what makes this event even more special, is that we are now turning the spotlight on Spencer himself. Of course it will be a night of music and celebration, but we’ll also take a look at the other side of Spencer, a side less seen, where lyrics are born and adversity is conquered.

We all know Gardens aren’t always filled with roses, so in our documentary portion of the event, our film takes a look at what makes this local hero tick, and how his love of music, surfing, friends, and family has kept our community dancing for over four decades.This filmed event is not to be missed! 

Open to all teens and young people (college-age) who want to jam – come learn how to jam, meet like-minded creative young people and have fun! Bring your instrument(s) and some songs to share. We hope to see you there! Young teen hour for teens 14 and under is from 6 to 7pm. Older teens and young people are invited to come and jam from 7pm to 9pm (and younger teens are encouraged to stay and continue to participate)!

Get ready for Brazilian Day Santa Barbara on Saturday November 19th at Casa de la Guerra in the heart of Downtown Santa Barbara! Join us from 10am - 6pm for non-stop entertainment including live music and Brazilian bands, dance classes for the community, Kids Zone, workshops and performances, Samba dancers + Carnaval Parade, Annual Brazilian Bikini Fashion show, over 100 vendors, Brazilian Food and Oakberry acai, a beer garden featuring local brews and bar featuring tropical Brazilian Cocktails. This event is free to the community and we welcome all to celebrate this cultural festival together!

The Good Good Show is a monthly stand up comedy show featuring the hottest comics working today that you’ve seen or heard on Comedy Central, Conan, Netflix, Hulu, Jimmy Kimmel, AppleTV, E!, OUTtv, Sirius XM and more. This evenings line up features Chey Bell, Kyle Ayers, Julie Weidmann, Cara Connors and Omar Nava.

Come have a laugh and enjoy a delicious craft beer! This event is for ages 21+

The Santa Barbara Symphony Presents: Wisdom of the Sky, Water, Earth

November 19-20, 7:30pm

Honoring the past in an intersection of connection, community, and culture, this program offers a symphonic and visual homage to our region’s centuries old Chumash heritage from local composer and preservationist Cody Westheimer. Paired with Robert Schumann’s romantic musical gift to his future wife, the Piano Concerto in A minor, featuring world-renowned pianist and Santa Barbara favorite, Alessio Bax; Jean Sibelius’ Valse Triste; and Mozart’s inimitable masterpiece, Symphony No. 40, this repertoire delivers a deeply moving and moody tribute.

The Artists:

Nir Kabaretti, Conductor

Alessio Bax, Piano

Marianne Parra & Ernestine Ygnacio-DeSoto, Chumash Descendants

The Repertoire:

Cody Westheimer | Wisdom of the Sky, Water, Earth – World Premiere

Robert Schumann | Piano Concerto in A minor

Jean Sibelius | Valse Triste

W.A. Mozart | Symphony No. 40 in G minor

When The Cult were preparing to hit the stage at Coachella in 2014, few were expecting the fury that the band delivered. As the festival goers milled about, packing in the field in front of the stage, Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy were building up to a crescendo, of which, when the smoke cleared, Rolling Stone would hail as “the Messianic moment of Coachella”. Critics have hailed the band as incendiary, ground-breaking, and transcendent, but the band themselves choose to look forward… and in a lot of ways, prefer to be seen as survivors… marginalized and vulgarized, much in the same way their song subjects have been.

And it was on the ride home from this performance in the desert that the roots of their tenth album Hidden City began to take root. And it was then that the Astbury realized he was ready to begin putting together the final chapter of a trilogy – one that hadn’t been not, until then, fully realized… one that, with the release of Hidden City in early 2016 would complete a circle that had been forming a long time before… one that, when complete, would encompass their acknowledgement of the global community within a metaphor for our spiritual lives, our intimate interior lives... one that spoke for those with voices who are not heard… those who live in outside of the public eye, within the “Hidden City.”

Join No Indoor Voices at Soul Bites Restaurant for a stellar night of comedic talent! The evening will be brilliantly hosted by Steven Zakari (Froot Basket) and feature comedians Robby Hoffman (The Chris Gethard Show, Just for Laughs) and Matt Kirshen (Last Comic Standing, Jim Jeffries Show)!

Younger By The Days and Santa Barbara Beach Yoga bring you a series of 3 Qigong Workshops in Santa Barbara. It is a unique opportunity to create your own Qigong daily practice.

Qigong combines conscious breathing with slow and energy-healing physical movements that have an instant pacifying effect on the mind. It is known for its positive effects in : decreasing pain, anxiety and chronic stress, enhancing physical and mental functions, improving balance for fall prevention, and improving sleep and self healing.

The practice will be based on :

• KeWen 20 movements, a very efficient and accessible series of gentle movements particularly suited for beginners,
• 8 Brocades of Silk (Ba Duan Jin), one of the most well known Qigong practices in the world.
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This practice, led by Beatrice Appay herself, will be followed by explanations and a time for Q&As.

The Architecture of Collage: Marshall Brown

Now through January 7

The Architecture of Collage is Marshall Brown’s first solo museum exhibition and most comprehensive presentation of his collages to date. There are twenty-five artworks in the exhibition, including loans from the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago. Two of the most recent collage series, Prisons of Invention and Maps of Berlin, will premiere at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

Brown cuts out photographs of buildings and reassembles them into levitating structures that hover between reality and fiction. He calls them chimeras after the lion-goat-snake creature of Greek mythology. Like the monster, whose parts were taken from existing animals, the parts of these collages are taken from actual buildings but when combined form something new. They are physical proof that borrowing and recombination can yield strikingly original results and achieve what contemporary art often does so well: suggest that the world could be different than what it is without specifying what that might concretely be.

Downtown Santa Barbara is hiring! Please spread the word to interested friends and colleges about the following positions. 

Marketing and Communications Intern

Events and Communications Intern

Economic Development Intern 

Learn more at the link here as well as see what other jobs around downtown are currently available. Hiring? Let us know and we’ll spread the word.