GOINGS ON : SANTA BARBARA : Street Boogie : Thousands to march in Summer Solstice Parade to honor life, creativity and the longest day of the year.

The moment she saw the roll of light-catching, filmy material at a garage sale three months ago, Barbara Pascone thought: “That’s jellyfish material if I ever saw it.”

“I already knew the theme of this year’s Summer Solstice Parade was the sea,” said Pascone, a Ventura resident, “and when I saw the material it just screamed ‘Jellyfish!’ ”

Thus was born the Boogie Belly (“That word was stuck in because it rhymes with ‘jelly”’) Jumping Jellyfish Kazoo Revue.

Attired in the costumes made from the shiny material, Pascone, her husband Anthony, and 19 friends will dance through Santa Barbara streets this Saturday to honor life, creativity and the longest day of the year.

“We’re all absolute freaks about the parade,” said Pascone, who has participated in it for four years. “I work hard all year, and this is when I play. It’s my version of ‘life balancing.’ ”

While researching jellyfish, Pascone discovered that they propel themselves through the water by opening and closing the part of their body called an umbrella. So while dancing up the street to a waltz, a jazz and a Latin number played on their kazoos, the group of marine coelenterates also will be opening and closing their clear, bell-shaped umbrellas to the beat.

Pascone’s clan is one of about 20 scheduled ensembles that will march in the parade. There are also four major groups that anyone can join, even on the morning of the event, if spaces are still available. One such group is The Rodeo Cowgirls, featuring cowgirl mermaids riding sea horses and trying to lasso a giant sea serpent as it meanders down the street. And there’s Atlantis A Go-Go, a farcical ‘60s-type underwater bar with dancing lobsters, Neptune bouncers, and go-go dancers, all boogieing to the B-52’s “Rock Lobster.”

More than 80,000 spectators are expected at the parade, and about 1,000 participants.

“We can’t give an accurate count of how many people will be in it because we really have no idea,” said Treasurer David Villadsen, one of 22 members of the board of directors. “It’s almost a solstice tradition for participants not to sign up for the parade until the morning it starts, at the last minute. This event seems to attract people with a high intensity level, and they might start on their costume Friday night and work right up to the parade.”

And what if someone shows up in something, well, silly-looking? “Oh, that’s OK,” David said. “Very few of the costumes are all that impressive when they’re just sitting there. But they transform into something wonderful when they’re on the street filled with life and energy.”

This is the first year the parade has had a theme, he said. “But if someone’s wearing something that doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the sea, oh well. . . .”

The organizers seem to pride themselves on not having many rules. But they’re sticklers about the few they do have.

“Solstice is a celebration, it’s an artistic event. And as such it is totally non-commercial,” said Michelle Berne, artistic director. Participants are not allowed to display any words, even a sign bearing a group’s name. Nor can they wear T-shirts with a company name or logo. And recognizable symbols are not allowed.

“Before the parade begins I’m going to walk around with a roll of duct tape and cover up all the words and symbols I see,” Berne said. She added that many individuals and corporations contribute to the parade and are thanked in a newspaper advertisement after the event.

The early history of the affair is in the mind of the beholder. Or, as Villadsen, who has been in the parade for the past 16 years, put it, “an as-legend-has-it type of thing.”

“When we first started we didn’t keep records because we never considered ourselves some kind of institution in which anyone would actually be interested in our history.”

As legend has it, the parade began in 1974 as Michael Gonzales and two fellow revelers romped up the sidewalks of State Street to celebrate his birthday. Two years later, Gonzales’ performing arts group The Mime Caravan joined in on the festivities. The idea caught on and now people from Seattle to San Diego come to play in and see the parade, which operates on a $100,000-plus budget.

“Some things have changed but the spirit of solstice is the same,” Villadsen said. “We don’t want this to be a contrived parade; something put on for the tourists. We want it to remain a fun, spontaneous event of neighbor entertaining neighbor.”

WHERE AND WHEN: The Summer Solstice Parade will begin at noon at Cota and State streets in Santa Barbara. It will travel north to Micheltorena Street, turn right, and continue to Alameda Park where it will end with a party for performers and spectators including food and entertainment. The parade is expected to last between one and two hours. Late registration to be in the parade is $10 for adults and $5 for children, 4 through 12. No written words, motorized vehicles or animals are allowed.