SANTA BARBARA French Festival

canceled in 2021, 2022 - hopes to return in 2023

Oak Park
300 W. Alamar Ave.
Santa Barbara, CA
frenchfestival.com
FREE ADMISSION!

Includes food & wine, vendors, arts & crafts, entertainment, and the famous Poodle Parade at 6 p.m. both days *subject to change

Entertainment

 The stages are filled with dance and music from more than 30 different bands, performance and instruction incorporating French dances influences around the world such as French Polynesian, West African belly dance, Cajun, Can-Can, tango and more.

Moulin Rouge Stage entertainment each day culminates in the grand finale, Grand Dames of the Femme Fatales Drag Revue.

The Eiffel Stage Pooch Parade provides the grand finale with some high steppers of a whole different breed.

The Accordion Stage invites guests to grab a tasty crepe, a nice glass of wine and sit back and enjoy the music.

Performers are all volunteers receiving no compensation for their services or travel expenses. Show your appreciation when they pass the hat at the end of their performance, a French tradition. Merci!

SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. -- A Santa Barbara tradition (31 years in 2018) created by a Frenchman to pay homage to his native Bastille Day has been an annual hit in the coastal city often compared to the French Riviera. Santa Barbara's French Festival is about travel, the good life and things that the French enjoy and celebrate such as wine, food, song, dance and poodles.

There are over 40 acts taking place on the three stages throughout the two-day event. It's like going to France minus the expense, according to Michael. France comes to Santa Barbara! Fresh baked French breads and pastries. Classic and nouvelle cuisine and regional specialties. Crepes, onion soup, quiche, pates, sausage, escargots, salads and cheeses, plus beer, wine, sparking Champagne are a few French options, according to Chef Michel Richard says it's like going to France without paying for it.

Saturday and Sunday (Bastille Day Weekend), in Santa Barbara's Oak Park. Admission is free. Address: Grant Park,

France is closer than you think. Each year in Santa Barbara, French culture is celebrated, much as the French enjoy their Bastille Day events. Sidewalk cafés sporting checkered table cloths and umbrellas, artists with bérets, and pampered French poodles on parade. It must be Bastille Day in Santa Barbara! 8,000 miles from Paris the Parisians celebrate the French Revolution along with more than 25,000 of their new best friends at the Annual French Festival in Santa Barbara on Bastille Weekend.

Santa Barbara and France share many distinctions. French descendents choose Santa Barbara for its charmed & charming lifestyle. The weather, culture, fresh foods and fine wines are amenities and life-choices the French are accustomed to. Santa Barbara (Riviera of California) inspired festival founder & travel journalist Steve Hoegerman to promote and share what many Californians have missed in terms of experience. He speaks four languages, leads groups on 14 day French vacations each fall, lectures on French travel, and speaks French himself. Hoegerman met his wife in a bistro in the Latin quarter of Paris and returns each year to France, sharing the hidden spots American tourists seldom see. His tours are offered at HiddenProvence.com.

The Santa Barbara native proudly created a legacy when he built the French Festival into one of the Central Coast's finest entertainment events complete with cancan, belly dancers, hot jazz a la Django Reinhardt, the Femmes Fatales Drag Review, wandering mimes, jugglers, and accordion players who perform throughout the crowds.

POODLE PARADE: Held on Sunday at 6:15 p.m., all dogs are accepted into the parade, though you'll see mostly poodles. Sunday afternoon's famous Poodle Parade, is a promenade of canine topiary under the Festival's huge Eiffel Tower. C'est magnifique!

Events are not guaranteed. It is your responsibility to confirm before going.