GOINGS ON / SANTA BARBARA : End of Diplomacy : With UCSB commencement happening this weekend, it’s a good time to drive up for some general mayhem.

Commencement ceremonies will be held at UC Santa Barbara this weekend, so if raucousness appeals to you, this may be a good time to head up the coast for some celebrating. As usual for the weekend, the college town of Isla Vista is the prime locale for general mayhem. But there’s always a good showing in the vicinity where State and Ortega streets meet in Santa Barbara. Locals call this area the Crawl Space, due to the cluster of bars in proximity to each other.

For those looking for something more refined, the Santa Barbara Oratorio Chorale will present “A Night at the Opera,” Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 4 p.m., at the First Presbyterian Church, 21 E. Constance Ave. The orchestra and soloists will play selections from Verdi’s “Il Trovatore” and “La Traviata” and Puccini’s “La Boheme.” Tickets are $9. Call 683-2460.

Theatre Pacifica’s production of Alan Ayckbourn’s “Taking Steps” opens tonight at La Casa de la Raza. The British comedy is about six eccentric characters trying to sort out their lives while stumbling around a ramshackle Victorian house. Tickets for tonight’s benefit performance are $25 and proceeds will go to Heath House. The show will continue Friday and on June 18, 19, 25 and 26 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10. Call 564-0815.

Starlight Entertainment’s “Nunsense” will open Friday at Villa Santa Barbara, 227 E. Anapamu St. Dan Goggin’s comedy is about five nuns putting on a show to raise funds so they can bury a group of their peers who died from food poisoning. Shows are Fridays at 6:30 and Saturdays at 5:30 through July 25. $12.50, $17.50 with hors d’ oeuvres. Call 964-3688.

Mark your calendars because Santa Barbara is about to host two of its most popular events.

The 20th annual Santa Barbara Writers’ Conference begins Friday, June 19, and will run through June 26. And the Summer Solstice Celebration will be on Saturday, June 20. This annual celebration of the longest day of the year includes a parade, festival and concert. 965-3396.

Former Santa Barbara Writers’ Conference student-turned-guest-speaker and actress-writer Fannie Flagg will talk about “ ‘Fried Green Tomatoes’ and Me,” 8 p.m. June 20 in the auditorium of the Miramar Hotel.

“Fannie was a student at the conference about five years ago,” said Barnaby Conrad, conference director. “We ran a contest during the week and the assignment was to write a poem or essay or story on youth. Fannie wrote a three-page sketch. There was an agent in the audience and he said if she’d expand it, he’d take it. She did, and it became the book ‘Coming Attractions.’ ”

Then Flagg went on to write the novel “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.” Her screenplay for the story was nominated for an Oscar this year. She has appeared on about 500 television shows and in films, and she had the lead in Broadway’s “Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.”

Ray Bradbury, who has inaugurated every Santa Barbara Writers’ Conference since its inception in 1972, will once again serve as opening speaker on Friday, June 19, at 8 p.m. in the auditorium. Author of 50 novels, 22 plays and about 500 short stories, Bradbury will talk about his book “Green Shadows, White Whale.”

Other guest speakers will include publisher and writer Sol Stein and poet Philip Levine. Paul Erdman, author of “The Panic of ‘89,” “The Crash of ‘79” and “The Swiss Account,” among other novels, will talk about “Investigative History--Writing Best-Selling Novels.”

Elizabeth George will speak on “Writing and Selling the Mystery/Suspense Novel.” She is the author of “A Great Deliverance,” “Payment in Blood,” “For the Sake of Elena” and “Well-Schooled in Murder.”

The closing speaker will be crime novel writer Ross Thomas, who penned “Out on the Rim,” “Chinaman’s Chance,” “Voodoo, Ltd.” and 18 other novels. Entry for the speeches is $5 for the public and free to conference students. Call 684-2250.