Solstice Picks a Theme for 2025!

The Summer Solstice Celebration announced the 2025 theme for the 2025 Parade & Festival at “PLAZA PALOOZA” this Sunday, November 3, 2024, at the long-awaited opening of the Michael Towbes Plaza.

Solstice was invited by the organizers of Plaza Palooza to create a celebratory atmosphere for the event. This is evident in the many photos of the two giant inflatable floats by Hungarian artist Pali X-Mano and Solstice flags adorning tents along the walkways

[Drum roll please] 

The theme for the 2025 Solstice Parade is: “WILD WORLD!”

Every year Solstice invites the public to submit their ideas for a theme; next a Solstice committee picks from the hundreds of entries and narrows it down to the top three. The top three choices this year were “Wild World”, “Whimsical Wonder “and “Sea of Sound.”  

Claudia Bratton, former Executive Director and current Solstice Junior Artist Coordinator, says that “a good theme is one which inspires many different interpretations, and instantly one gets a a vision.”

There are many factors in selecting a theme which becomes the foundation for the elements in the Parade. First of all, a theme needs to include all of our Santa Barbara demographic, kids, families, our ethnically diverse community. Because Solstice is a 501c3 it cannot directly support political messaging. It also needs to have possibilities for broad interpretation. For example "Hearts" might not be a great theme, because the entire parade might be just hearts, which probably doesn't make for an artful and diverse parade.

Young artists at the Solstice Booth entering into the Elephant Parade ® Artbox Contest

Inflatable next to our booth

Once the theme is announced, artists in the community can begin work on their ideas for the Poster Art Contest and designs for their floats and ensembles. There will be an open call to poster artists, with an opening reception in early 2025. This annual contest engages between 30 to 35 regional artists to create artwork which will be used on t-shirts, posters, mugs, and for Solstice marketing materials. There is an honorarium for the winning artist or artists.

“We hope this theme will bring a multitude of fun interpretations and inspire artists to celebrate life and creativity through our wild and wonderful imaginations" says Executive Director Penny Little.