Santa Cruz Prepares for Defiant New Year's Eve

Last year, Whitney Wilde went to the renegade New Year’s Eve street party in Santa Cruz as the Safe Sex Fairy and handed out free condoms downtown. This year?

“My outfit has lights and tinsel. No theme. I just love lights and things that sparkle.”

Even though no official organizers or sponsors have stepped forward to promote the parade and no permits have been pulled, a gathering of hundreds or even thousands is expected Saturday night on Pacific Avenue.  

For the past seven years, it’s been dubbed the Last Night Santa Cruz DIY Parade—the Last Night in opposition to First Night Santa Cruz, which was a downtown arts event until 2004, and DIY, for the do-it-yourself aspect of the unsanctioned gala.

“Everyone who participates makes it happen,” Elizabeth Burchfield said in a statement.

According to the Last Night DIY website, the parade of “freaks, clowns, gamelan, politics, fire, samba drums, punks, pirates, art, bikes hippies, art cars, zombies, marching bands, moms, dads, kids and music” will start at 5 p.m. near the Saturn Café parking lot at Spruce Street and Pacific Avenue and head to the other end of Pacific.

If Last Night DIY 2011 is anything like last year’s, it will be in violation of the city’s Municipal Code 10.65.030. That means any person who conducts or participates in a noncommercial event in which a permit has not been issued could be cited for the violation.

Not only is the event itself unlawful, said Steve Clark, deputy chief for the Santa Cruz police, but it’s unfair to others who have taken the appropriate steps to go through the city’s permit process—and pay for it. 

“It’s an idea brought forward this year by Occupy Santa Cruz, which is the anarchist crowd rebranded,” Clark said. “We want to work with the organizers, but they’re not willing to meet with us, and it’s wildly irresponsible to invite the community to an event like this without ensuring all safety precautions are in place.”

Clark said he doesn’t plan to create a scene and arrest people on the spot Saturday night, but officers will identify participants and organizers and file reports with the city attorney’s office.

Downtown streets will not be blocked until 10 p.m., when the city will prepare for its annual celebration, a sanctioned one—midnight fireworks at the clock tower.

“It’s an all-hands-on-deck night for us,” Clark said. “Everyone will be working at some capacity on New Year’s Eve.”