SBCAST event showcases vintage silver, high-tech heart chairs and more
Ben Betts provides live music during SBCAST’s Holiday Bazaar Bizarre at their building in Santa Barbara on Saturday,
A holiday bazaar featured everyone from Santa Claus to an aerial performer Saturday at the Santa Barbara Center for Art, Science and Technology.
The center is a co-living and co-working space for people to grow. It was designed and founded by Alan Macy, who believes that art and science are intertwined.
“The center creates community. There has been something special during COVID, living here. It’s as if you have to go inside yourself to find newness,” spokesperson Cassandra Bates told the News-Press.
The SBCAST bazaar featured artisanal booths, jewelry, a giving tree, vintage silver, bespoke clothing, high-tech heart chairs and glassware. And there was a drop-in by Santa and his elves.
Ms. Bates told the News-Press how this bazaar stood out from similar holiday events, which tend to feature a myriad of vendors selling food, crafts, gifts and more.
Instead, the SBCAST bazaar emphasized the experience over numbers and probably had only five or six vendors, Ms. Bates said.
“It was about crafting an experience to invite people into something special,” she said. “We wanted to create a dynamic of entering a space where anything was possible. We wanted people to connect. It was inviting people back into an experience.”
One of the bazaar’s biggest attractions was a three-hour performance by Elevated Dreams Aerial Performances, featuring a demonstration by their founder, Cindy Macy, wife of Alan Macy.
Another highlight was the heart chairs.
The four high-tech chairs were under a dome in the back of the open courtyard. When you sit in the chairs, you can see your heartbeat as a flashing light in front of you. You can also feel the vibrations of your heartbeat all the down your spine.
The bazaar also featured a giving tree.
“The experience with the giving tree was much like a wishing well. It was about people being able to come and learn how to receive,” Ms. Bates said. “You know it’s a success when people start putting things on the tree you hadn’t seen earlier in the day.”
email: kzehnder@newspress.com
