Busy
From the waves to the redwoods, it's all happening here.
Live music, festivals, art walks, surf contests, trail days and everything in between.
Every listing is something you can actually show up to, from Davenport down to Watsonville.
โ Featured this season
Treehouse Dispensary First Friday
Treehouse Dispensary hosts a monthly First Friday event on the first Friday of every month. These events feature live music, local artists, makers, and an art market with up to 20 different vendors, along with shop-wide discounts and community activities. The shop is open 8:00 AM to 9:45 PM daily. We're proud to offer everyday savings for our community: New Members: 10% off your first order Wisdom Discount (65+): 5% off Medical Patients: 10% off Students & Teachers: 20% off with valid ID Veterans: 20% off *Please note that discounts do not stack with other deals. Ask staff for exclusions.
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Featured
43rd Annual Capitola Art & Wine Festival
Stroll the festival with friends and family, sipping exceptional wines from Santa Cruz Mountain wineries while admiring the artistic talents of over 100 fine artists. Sway to live music and be inspired by local dance groups while taking in the ocean breeze and breathtaking view of the Monterey Bay. Feed your cravings with tantalizing cuisine from local food purveyors, and cruise through the Artisans Marketplace for locally handcrafted goods. If that isnโt enough, Capitola Village is filled with restaurants for every taste and charming boutiques to satisfy a shopperโs dream. Art, wine, music, and gourmet cuisine in the enchanting beach-side setting of Capitola Villageโฆsummerโs last hurrah, and truly a weekend in paradise! This event is from 10am to 6pm on Saturday, September 12 and from 10am to 5pm on Sunday, September 13. See link to the event in the orange box above.
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Featured
The Cruz Room: Hosted Board Game Night
The Game Night Collective provides a curated experience. Every Monday night with a library of 30+ board games, guided game teaching, hosted featured games, and prizes! Whether you arrive alone or with a group, the goal is to make it easy to sit down and start playing. Hosted micโd board games 5 โ 8 Trivia 8 โ 10
โ๏ธ Happening today
Thursday, July 2372 events on today. No plans required, just go.
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Showing 30 of 109 upcoming events ยท Art & Culture ยท from 2026-07-23 ยท to 2026-07-30
BEGINNING/INTERMEDIATE SEWING (6/6)
2 booked, 7 available Katy Kenyon-Abel
A three-week summer theater program culminating in a full production of Moana Jr., giving participants a deeper dive into performance, character work, and stagecraft.
A one-week theater intensive where young performers rehearse and stage Moana Jr., building confidence and ensemble skills in a supportive creative environment.
CLAY INDEPENDENT LAB TIME
0 booked, 4 available Glazing
Spring Exhibitions at the Institute of the Arts and Sciences
Visit the IAS, UCSCโs premier art galleries, for our spring exhibitions. On view April 10โAugust 16, 2026 are three diverse and interdisciplinary shows: Libia Posada: Everything is Going Right , the first US solo exhibition by the Colombia-based artist and medical doctor; Gina Athena Ulysse: A Redwoods Rasanblaj , a site-specific and immersive exploration of the Haitian kreyol conception of rasanblaj; and Ronaldo V. Wilson: There Are No Words, But Melodies , a mixed-media exhibition emerging at the intersections of Black poetics, performance, and visual art. The IAS Galleries are open Wednesday-Sunday, 12 pm โ 5 pm. Admission is free to the public. Libia Posada: Everything is Going Right Libia Posadaโs first solo exhibition in the United States features installations, sculptures, and drawings meticulously constructed from surgical instruments, gauze bandages, crutches, used books, and domestic picture frames. The new and existing works in the exhibition powerfully stitch together the personal, social, and political disorders and afflictions that currently trouble the world, from the wars that resonate across the globe to the violences of aging in US prisons. Gina Athena Ulysse: A Redwoods Rasanblaj: Origins & Disentanglements The internationally-lauded work of humanities professor Gina Athena Ulysse is on view as a premier Faculty Spotlight Exhibition. The site-specific installation, produced in community from things collected, found, purchased and donated, centers on the Haitian concept of rasanblaj, a form of assembly and collage that transcends the formal use of materials to draw together people, spirits, and ideas. Ronaldo V. Wilson: There Are No Words, But Melodies Collage is both a material practice and a structural interrogation in the Faculty Spotlight Exhibition artworks by literature professor Ronaldo V. Wilson. In video, painting, and installation, layers and folds conceal and reveal, delving into the experience, both bodily and emotive, of living in time
Rules Are Not Neutral: Play As Sense-Making, Acts Of Resistance, And Imagining Otherwise
This exhibition brings together a range of analog games โ including board, card, role-playing, and other participatory works โ that engage social and political realities in different ways. The works span widely circulated commercial games to independently produced projects, one-of-a-kind artworks by artists, faculty, alumni, and students, and materials drawn from UC Santa Cruz Special Collections and Archives. In part, the exhibition challenges the persistent assumption that games and play are detached from social and political life. On the contrary, game designers and artists across diverse perspectives and positions have long used play to engage questions of social systems, lived experience, and how power operates. This exhibition does not attempt to represent that full spectrum. Instead, it brings together a particular set of works that foreground how games can make systems visible, intervene in them, and imagine alternatives. All games embody values, whether intentional or not. โ Mary Flanagan , game designer and scholar Across all of these works, games are not only forms of entertainment, though they may be that as well. They are encountered in multiple ways: as objects, as systems, as artworks, and as experiences that unfold unpredictably through interaction. In each case, rules and constraints shape what participants can do. In these different forms, the works stage systems โ such as housing and land ownership, capitalism, race and identity, civil rights and protest, fascism, and colonialism โ in ways that are simplified and easy to see, opening space to recognize similar structures beyond the game. In this sense, the works suggest that rules are not neutral โ they organize experience, distribute power, and produce meaning. Games are the art of agency. โ C. Thi Nguyen , philosopher The exhibition is intentionally dense. This abundance reflects the breadth of ways games operate across contexts, from activism and education to art and everyday life. While it cel
It's time to get those crayons sharpened, paints mixed and markers at the ready for our Summer 2026 Pokรฉmon Art Contest for kids 5-12! To join in, create a picture of your favorite Pokรฉmon having a fun moment or striking a cool, dynamic pose. Submissions should be on 8.5 x 11 paper. You can use any medium you like, such as paint, marker, crayon, pencil, etc. No digital art. There will be prizes awarded to two age groups, 5-7 and 8-12. Entries accepted June 1st-July 31st. Winners will be announced on August 6th. BONUS: All participants will receive a free Pokรฉmon:Chaos Rising 11x17 mini-poster (while supplies last) when you hand in your art.
Step into the MAH's Archives Reading Room during our weekly Open Archives hours. Meet the archivist, see a unique item from the collection on display, and discover where Santa Cruz history is preserved. Please note: Open Archives is an informal drop-in experience, not a time for in-depth research appointments. If you'd like to schedule research time, please contact us in advance by email or phone. We usually pop open the archives every week-though every now and then we take a break. For more information, email [email protected]
A technical training camp for theater at All About Theatre in Santa Cruz, covering skills for behind-the-scenes production.
Tech Cafรฉ: Ipad Stop Motion Movies
Event date: July 23, 2026 Event Time: 04:30 PM - 06:30 PM Location: 275 Main Street, Suite #100 Watsonville, CA 95076
Tech Cafรฉ: iPad Stop Motion Movies
Learn to create stop-motion movies using iPads at Watsonville Main Library. Part of a weekly Tech Cafe series.
Are you interested in learning about technology? Visit us during our weekly Tech Cafรฉ program where you have the opportunity to get basic tech-related questions answered and test a new piece of technology. This program will take place on Thursdays from 4:30-6:30pm at the Main Library (unless otherwise indicated). The technology we demo will change each month; here is a list of what technology will be featured: - January (program starts on the 15th): Doodle Pens - February: Makey Makeys (circuit boards) - March: 3D Printer - April: Spheros (programmable robots) - May: Cricut - June: Glowforge - laser cutter (This program will take place at the Freedom Branch) - July: iPad Stop Motion movies - August: Spheros (programmable robots) - September: 3D Printer - October: Doodle Pens - November: Cricut - December: Makey Makeys (circuit boards) Audience: All Ages ยฟLe interesa aprender sobre tecnologรญa? Visรญtanos durante nuestro programa semanal Tech Cafรฉ, donde tendrรกs la oportunidad de obtener respuestas a preguntas bรกsicas relacionadas con la tecnologรญa y probar una nueva tecnologรญa. Este programa se llevarรก a cabo los jueves de 4:30 a 6:30pm en la Biblioteca Principal (a menos que se indique otro horario o lugar). La tecnologรญa que mostraremos cambiarรก cada mes; las tecnologรญas que se presentarรกn: - enero (el programa comienza el dรญa 15): Doodle Pens - febrero: Makey Makeys (placas de circuitos) - marzo: Impresora 3D - abril: Spheros (robots programables) - mayo: Cricut - junio: Glowforge - cortadora lรกser (este programa se llevarรก a cabo en la sucursal Freedom) - julio: iPad Stop Motion (pelรญculas) - agosto: Spheros (robots programables) - septiembre: Impresora 3D - octubre: Doodle Pens - noviembre: Cricut - diciembre: Makey Makeys (placas de circuitos) Audiencia: Para todas las edades
A weekly Congo dance class in Santa Cruz. Participants learn traditional African dance movements in a group setting at The 418 Project.
Motion Pacific: Adult Intermediate Modern
This is Motion Pacific's Adult Intermediate Modern class for adult dancers.
A full production of the contemporary musical Dear Evan Hansen, staged with a cast and creative team. A powerful story about connection, grief, and belonging.
INSPIRED BY NATURE: BEGINNING HANDBUILDING (4/5)
0 booked, 7 available Kathryn Pierno
Bookshop Santa Cruz: Daniel Mason | COUNTRY PEOPLE
FREE IN-STORE EVENT: Bookshop welcomes Pulitzer Prize finalist Daniel Mason (North Woods) for a reading and signing of his new novel Country Peopleโa rollicking, lyrical year in the life of a family as they strike out into the unknown (aka Vermont), leaving all of the comforts of home behind.
A story written by Capitolaโs very own, Joe Ortiz, comes to life at The SC Actors Theatre. Escaping Queens follows an immigrant family as they navigate the challenges of poverty and a fatherโs problems with gambling, alcohol, and women. This funny, edgy, ultimately hopeful musical paints a cast of colorful characters, from neighborhood bookies to a doo wop group to all the shades and personalities in a mixed Italian and Puerto Rican family. Based on Oritzโs own memoir, PastinaโMy Fatherโs Misfortune, My Motherโs Good Soup, the emotional turbulence of navigating an escape from New York is presented as a compelling and sophisticated story that asks if children are fated to repeat their parentsโ mistakes. -Shelly Novo; Good Times Santa Cruz
Seabright Ave: Free Outdoor Movie Night
Grab some lawn chairs and some blankets and cozy up for this free movie night on Seabright! July 9: The SpongeBob Movie July 16: Legally Blonde July 23: Minecraft Movie July 30: Shrek August 6: Hoppers August 13: Goat
A one-week theater intensive where young performers rehearse and stage Moana Jr., building confidence and ensemble skills in a supportive creative environment.
A three-week summer theater program culminating in a full production of Moana Jr., giving participants a deeper dive into performance, character work, and stagecraft.
CLAY INDEPENDENT LAB TIME
0 booked, 4 available Glazing
Spring Exhibitions at the Institute of the Arts and Sciences
Visit the IAS, UCSCโs premier art galleries, for our spring exhibitions. On view April 10โAugust 16, 2026 are three diverse and interdisciplinary shows: Libia Posada: Everything is Going Right , the first US solo exhibition by the Colombia-based artist and medical doctor; Gina Athena Ulysse: A Redwoods Rasanblaj , a site-specific and immersive exploration of the Haitian kreyol conception of rasanblaj; and Ronaldo V. Wilson: There Are No Words, But Melodies , a mixed-media exhibition emerging at the intersections of Black poetics, performance, and visual art. The IAS Galleries are open Wednesday-Sunday, 12 pm โ 5 pm. Admission is free to the public. Libia Posada: Everything is Going Right Libia Posadaโs first solo exhibition in the United States features installations, sculptures, and drawings meticulously constructed from surgical instruments, gauze bandages, crutches, used books, and domestic picture frames. The new and existing works in the exhibition powerfully stitch together the personal, social, and political disorders and afflictions that currently trouble the world, from the wars that resonate across the globe to the violences of aging in US prisons. Gina Athena Ulysse: A Redwoods Rasanblaj: Origins & Disentanglements The internationally-lauded work of humanities professor Gina Athena Ulysse is on view as a premier Faculty Spotlight Exhibition. The site-specific installation, produced in community from things collected, found, purchased and donated, centers on the Haitian concept of rasanblaj, a form of assembly and collage that transcends the formal use of materials to draw together people, spirits, and ideas. Ronaldo V. Wilson: There Are No Words, But Melodies Collage is both a material practice and a structural interrogation in the Faculty Spotlight Exhibition artworks by literature professor Ronaldo V. Wilson. In video, painting, and installation, layers and folds conceal and reveal, delving into the experience, both bodily and emotive, of living in time
It's time to get those crayons sharpened, paints mixed and markers at the ready for our Summer 2026 Pokรฉmon Art Contest for kids 5-12! To join in, create a picture of your favorite Pokรฉmon having a fun moment or striking a cool, dynamic pose. Submissions should be on 8.5 x 11 paper. You can use any medium you like, such as paint, marker, crayon, pencil, etc. No digital art. There will be prizes awarded to two age groups, 5-7 and 8-12. Entries accepted June 1st-July 31st. Winners will be announced on August 6th. BONUS: All participants will receive a free Pokรฉmon:Chaos Rising 11x17 mini-poster (while supplies last) when you hand in your art.
Take a guided tour of the MAH by one of our staff members! At the MAH, our tours don't just take you through art and history. They immerse you in it and connect you to Santa Cruz and beyond. If you're ready to dive into a new perspective, join us every Friday for an informative private tour free with admission. Art experts, historians, and educators are here to help. Plus, stick around to meet new people or check out our new gift shop. If you are an educator and interested in booking a tour for your class or group, browse our educational field trips here.
A technical training camp for theater at All About Theatre in Santa Cruz, covering skills for behind-the-scenes production.
Sharing the wonderful art of Gazan organizer Yazan Mohammad๐ฅณ join us to explore his work and support his university costs so he can proceed with his evacuation from Gaza. lets get YAZAN to Ireland!~ a fundraiser for YAZANโs education at UNIVERSITY of LIMERICK and evacuation from GAZA Join us to celebrate Yazanโs commitment to UL in Ireland and help raise funds for his evacuation from Gaza [โญ] Art Market [โญ] Music [โญ] Community [โญ] Zines! Friday, July 24. Subrosa, 703 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz. 3-9PM * Interested in vending or playing music? Contact meowzedong.420 on Signal. Free entry (NOTAFLOF*) // all-ages // dry space // safe(r) space // anti-capitalist space // respect the space and each other! *no one turned away for lack of funds SubRosa is at 703 Pacific Avenue in downtown Santa Cruz, CA โ@@@@@โ SubRosa is a collectively run anarchist community space - a place to meet people, share resources and ideas, challenge our assumptions and act on our passions. Letโs create together the wo
A full production of the contemporary musical Dear Evan Hansen, staged with a cast and creative team. A powerful story about connection, grief, and belonging.
Pole Fitness 101/Functional Movement + Fundamentals + Dance
Pole Fitness 101 is more than just aerial training. Get movement training youโll use for life! โ Pole technique with dance & fitness modules โ Functional conditioning โ Mobility & flexibility training โ High level Xpert Xpole certified (L1-L4) โ FRC certified Mobility Specialist (FRCms) Drop in on one class or attend the fully programmed module for 7 weeks! Fridays 6 pm. www.ohanastudiosantacruz.com
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