The beauty of longer days and warmer nights allows locals and visitors alike to celebrate that cool ocean breeze and pristine starry sky so renowned in Santa Barbara — and State Street is one of those perfect places to do that. And with the summer months ahead, the city welcomes the return of the annual dance series hosted on closed blocks of State Street. From country to swing, the free Wednesday dance classes and open dance invites everyone to kick up their boots and have a good time.
In the month of April, more than 200 people showed up every Wednesday for the Downtown Santa Barbara Improvement Association’s dancing series. “It’s so nice to dance outside,” says Christy Grant of Kickin’ Country S.B., who led free line-dancing lessons for the past five weeks. “I miss that from COVID. We had to dance outside.”
What started just a few years ago with a sprinkling of residents in their cowboy boots blossomed into an annual affair; the last few line-dancing classes, held every Wednesday in April at the 700 block of State Street from 6-8 p.m., welcomed a whole host of new friends alongside familiar faces. “I love that the community is all ages [and] all different types of people,” Grant says…