The Santa Maria Valley Senior Citizens Club and Santa Maria Recreation and Parks Department are partnering to co-host a free New Year’s Eve celebration, albeit about 12 hours earlier than most parties designed to ring in 2025.
The Noon Year’s Eve Celebration Dance will take place at the Elwin Mussell Senior Center in Santa Maria on Tuesday, Dec. 31, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Admission to the event is free, thanks to grant funding from the Community Foundation of San Luis Obispo County, according to press materials.
The dance will feature live music from the Riptide Big Band and accompanying vocalists Bob Nations and Mitch Latting, both of whom often collaborate with the local ensemble.
Based in the Santa Maria Valley and led by former music teacher Judy Lindquist, the group includes musicians from both Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties and specializes in big band era music, soft rock from the ’60s and ’70s, the music standards of the ’30s and ’40s, and “pretty much anything written for standard big band orchestration,” according to the group’s website.
Thanks to consistent funding from the Community Foundation of San Luis Obispo County, the Riptide Big Band has been providing live dance events with free admission at venues across Central Coast for several years.
To find out more about the upcoming Noon Year’s Eve Celebration and other upcoming dance concerts featuring the Riptide Big Band, call (775) 813-5186 or visit riptidebb.com. The Elwin Mussell Senior Center is located at 510 Park Ave., Santa Maria.
For more info on the Community Foundation of San Luis Obispo County, call (805) 543-2323 or visit cfsloco.org. Since 1998, the nonprofit has awarded grants and scholarships that total more than $37 million, according to the organization’s website. The nonprofit’s headquarters is located at 550 Dana St., San Luis Obispo. Δ
This article appears in Nov 28 – Dec 8, 2024.