The celebration has quality and style. For Santa Barbara, the Fiesta is as important as the Carnival is to Rio or Mardi Gras to New Orleans. The pageant lasts for hours and explodes in dance, music, and color. Flowergirls with swirling skirts toss roses and carnations into the crowd. People crack blown-out painted eggs filled with confetti and bombard each other with the contents.
Candy rains down from old carriages.
Spectators and all the participating little ninas and charittos alike go wild from the sheer enjoyment and the fun of it. It too lasts for hours, and presents an endless imaginative stream of dancing, prancing children and animals, plus transportation devices in all shapes and sizes. Everyone and everything is dressed to kill and in full warpaint. After the parades, the crowd floods the city and Fiesta madness breaks out. Santa Barbara's normally well-bred restraint is under assault.