GOINGS ON / SANTA BARBARA : Feats Underfoot : A popular annual festival will feature scores of whimsical illustrations chalked on the pavement of the mission plaza.

Watch your step. At your feet you might find a bowl of fruit, a mythological figure or even one of Picasso’s disjointed women as the plaza at the Santa Barbara Mission becomes covered with chalk paintings this weekend.

During the sixth annual I Madonnari Italian Street Painting Festival, the plaza will be divided into 200 canvases that local artists are invited to paint. Each section will be decorated by a business, organization or individual, each of whom pays $75 to $450 for the space. The money benefits the children’s Creative Project, a nonprofit arts education organization.

Six years ago, Santa Barbara was the first city in the Western Hemisphere to hold a street painting festival similar to the annual international festival held in the village of Grazie di Curtatone, Italy.

Since then, it has grown into one of Santa Barbara’s most popular events. About 20,000 visitors come to watch the artists paint and to entertain their other senses with some Italian specialties from the food booths.

The festival runs from 11 to 6 p.m. Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Admission is free.

The Santa Barbara Wine Auction Weekend will start with a patron dinner on Friday, continue with an auction of fine wines on Saturday and conclude with a “grand wine tasting” on Sunday. The weekend is a benefit for two local nonprofit institutions, the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History and SEE (Surgical Eye Expeditions) International.

On Friday night, eight well-known chefs from Los Angeles and Santa Barbara will prepare multicourse dinners in local restaurants and private homes. Seats at the dinners are $75 per person and are available only to those who purchase tickets to all wine auction events.

An auction of rare and fine wines will be held Saturday from 1:30 to 4 p.m. at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. Minimum bids will range from $30 to $4,500. Bidders can also vie for some unusual wine-related events, such as dinner with Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss in his private box at a Lakers game.

Two wine seminars will precede the auction. “Fine Wine Collecting” will start at 11:30 a.m. It will be followed by a talk on California sparkling wine and a tasting of sparkling wines along with compatible food prepared by Wine Cask Catering. The buffet will include oysters on the half shell with shallot mignonette sauce, lemon sage chicken and marinated asparagus spears. Tickets for the auction and seminars are $50.

One Sunday, 1 to 4 p.m., there will be a wine tasting in the rotunda of Fess Parker’s Red Lion Resort, featuring wines of more than 50 West Coast wineries. Tickets are $25.

For information and tickets for all Wine Auction Weekend events, call 965-WINE.

Event organizer Erik Hoffman said that the third annual Sprung Floor Dance Festival this weekend will feature loads of music, lots of dancing and plenty of opportunities for flirting “and all that good stuff that you want when you go to a dance.”

The festival will begin at 2 p.m. at Oak Park with open call for contra, square and couples dances. Bring instruments and join in, get on stage and call out the steps, or grab a partner and dance. A potluck dinner will start at about 5:30 p.m. A string band will play from 7 to 10 p.m. The callers will walk through all the steps before each song so that beginners “have some clue of what to do,” Hoffman said. “Plus, everyone just helps everyone else out with the steps. It’s great for community spirit.” Admission is $5 for the final band. All prior events are free.

The celebration continues Sunday at the Carrillo Recreation Center, noon to midnight. Admission is $20 for the 12-hour event. Call 969-1511.

The Bike Fest in San Luis Obispo starts today and runs through Tuesday. The Bike Expo, the main event of the weeklong festival, will take place Saturday, starting at 10 a.m., in the San Luis Obispo Mission plaza. The exposition will include bike vendors, commuter information, fitness testing, exhibits and a construction design symposium. On the Memorial Day holiday, bikers can join a 10-mile group ride to Avila Beach. Call 781-2777.

Robert Plunket, known to locals for his Mr. Chatterbox column that used to appear regularly in Santa Barbara magazine, will be reading from his new novel, “Love Junkie,” 7 p.m. today at Chaucer’s Books. Now a resident of Florida, Plunket continues his column there and is writing his third novel. “Love Junkie” is a humorous story of a naive housewife who falls in love with a gay porn star. Call 563-0010.

Prisms New Music Ensemble will play 8 p.m. Friday at UC Santa Barbara’s Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall, $8, 893-3533. The UCSB Gamelan Ensemble will perform traditional court music of Central Java at noon Wednesday in the campus music bowl. Free. Call 893-3261.

Akira Kurosawa’s “Rhapsody in August” will screen at the Victoria Street Theatre, 1 p.m. Sunday. Richard Gere stars as a Japanese-American who attempts reconciliation with his family members who are survivors of the bombing of Nagasaki. Also at the Vic, Spike and Mike’s Festival of Animation, plus their Sick and Twisted midnight shows, continue their runs, $7, 965-1886.

Sy Miller’s “Santa Barbara Dolls, Bears & Miniatures” show and sale will be held Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Earl Warren Showgrounds, $5, 687-0766.