Aug
5
GARDEN TOTEMS: HANDBUILDING (5/5)
📍 Santa Cruz Mountains Art Center
🕒 10:00 AM – 12:30 PM · See listing
4 booked, 10 available Noelle Lightbourne
📍 Santa Cruz County, CA
From the waves to the redwoods, it's all happening here.
Live music, festivals, art walks, surf contests, trail days and everything in between.
In-person only, on purpose. Everything here is something you can actually show up to. No screens, no streams.
★ Featured this season
★ Featured Event
Sat, Aug 8, 2026 · 4:00 PM
Phamily Time!
📍 Woodhouse Blending & Brewing · Downtown Santa Cruz · See listing
Phamily Time, presented by Phreeborn is back with a summer edition you won’t want to miss. There will be something for everyone, so bring the whole phamily! Get tickets for the whole day celebration here: TICKETS
Music
Festivals
📍 Downtown Santa Cruz
Details →
Coming up
Wed, Aug 5, 2026 · The 418 Project
Motion Pacific: Dance for PD
Dance for Parkinson’s at Motion Pacific is a class for people with Parkinson’s Disease and their caretakers. The class is based on the innovative and internationally renowned Dance for PD® program designed by the Mark Morris Dance Group and the Brooklyn Parkinson Group. Trained Dance for Parkinson’s teachers use prompts and multiple dance styles to inspire movement, creative expression, and community. Dancers may sit in a chair, use a barre, or stand. Dance for Parkinson’s at Motion Pacific is open and free to the public. Classes are appropriate for anyone with Parkinson’s, no matter how advanced. Movement modifications will be made available and there is no dance experience required. Dance for Parkinson’s is offered every Wednesday from 1:00pm to 2:15pm, with the exception of the first Wednesday of the month, during which class is not held. Classes are offered in-person, in the Lobby at The 418 Project.
Music
📍 Downtown Santa Cruz
Coming up
Wed, Aug 5, 2026 · Woodhouse Brewing
July 1 Plateau Jazz Band plays for swing dance at Woodhouse Brewing
The Plateau Jazz Band plays 20s -40s swing dance jazz at Woodhouse Brewing from 5:30-8:30 on Wednesday July 1st. Listen, lesson, dance, dine and drink. Bob Folker teaches a half hour introductory/intermediate swing dance lesson from 5:30-6, the band plays for the dancers till 7, then Bob teaches a second half hour lesson and the band plays another hour long set of music. Things wrap up around 8:30 or so. Listening is free. Lessons and dance $10 The Plateau Jazz Band is a six-piece traditional jazz band from Santa Cruz, California. They play New Orleans influenced, Preservation Hall inspired, prohibition era swinging dance jazz. Their repertoire includes hot jazz songs like Dr. Jazz & That's a Plenty, blues tunes like St. Louis Blues & St. James Infirmary Blues, and swing dance standards like Blue Skies, Dinah, & I’m Going to Sit Right Down (and write myself a letter).
Music
Coming up
Wed, Aug 5, 2026 · The 418 Project
Motion Pacific- Beginning Hip Hop House
A weekly beginning hip hop house dance class. Participants will learn foundational movements, rhythms, and combinations in a structured, studio setting.
Music
📍 Downtown Santa Cruz
Coming up
Wed, Aug 5, 2026 · The Crepe Place
(((folkYEAH))) PRESENTS: ALELA DIANE With SHANNON LAY
With a nearly decades long contemporary folk career, Alela Diane’s work is akin to the changing of the seasons: a quiet, but extraordinary facet. Woven in with lovely guitar melodies, her ineffable voice soothes the listener with buoyant lilting and haunting harmonies. The lyrics in her latest album, Who’s Keeping Track of Time, unveil her intimate fascination with the mystery of the changing seasons and passing moments. Gentle rhythm and soaring strings accentuate Alela’s slow but steady lyrical honesty. Vulnerably grasping at how time comes for us all, Alela’s music serves as a comfort to the weary heart. -Shelly Novo; Good Times Santa Cruz
Music
📍 Midtown
☀️ Happening today
Wednesday, August 540 events on today. No plans required, just go.
9:00 AM
$10
Pilates & Posture in the Pasture
📍 Beyond Liberty
Wellness
9:00 AM
$59
Dynomite Farm: Private Dahlia U-Cut Experience
📍 Dynomite Farm
Community
10:00 AM
See listing
Mobile Health Clinic
📍 Santa Cruz Public Libraries
Community
10:00 AM
$32
Santa Cruz Beach Train
📍 Roaring Camp Railroads
Family
10:00 AM
See listing
Baby Dance Jam
📍 The 418 Project
Art & Culture
10:00 AM
See listing
GARDEN TOTEMS: HANDBUILDING (5/5)
📍 Santa Cruz Mountains Art Center
Outdoors
10:30 AM
See listing
Bilingual Baby Laptime
📍 Watsonville Library
Family
11:00 AM
See listing
Preschool Story Time @ La Selva Beach
📍 Santa Cruz Public Libraries
Community
11:30 AM
See listing
Bilingual Toddler Storytime
📍 Watsonville Library
Family
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11 upcoming events · Art & Culture · from 2026-08-05 · to 2026-08-05
Aug
5
A free weekly dance jam for babies and their caregivers at The 418 Project in Santa Cruz, with movement, music, and play in a joyful environment.
Aug
5
Audrey Stanley Grove: Much Ado About Nothing
📍 Audrey Stanley Grove in DeLaveaga Park
🕒 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM · $25
Santa Cruz Shakespeare invites you to experience Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, un-der the trees and stars of the Audrey Stanley Grove in Santa Cruz’s DeLaveaga Park this summer. Much Ado About Nothing By William Shakespeare Directed by Charles Pasternak One of Shakespeare’s wittiest and most beloved comedies, the 2026 season will open with Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. Of all the couples in Shakespeare, perhaps none is more widely loved than Beatrice and Benedick. Their battle of wits; their antagonism turned to eroticism; their history. Before the play begins, they already seem to define each other. The audience, like the other characters in the play, wait with excitement as their wits clash, and eventually, as their love blossoms. Much Ado About Nothing runs July 11 – August 30. More information or to purchase tickets, follow the link in the orange above, or contact the box office Tuesday through Friday from noon to 4pm at the number listed above.
Aug
5
Spring Exhibitions at the Institute of the Arts and Sciences
📍 Institute of the Arts and Sciences
🕒 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM · See listing
Visit the IAS, UCSC’s premier art galleries, for our spring exhibitions. On view April 10–August 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 – 5 pm. Admission is free to the public. Libia Posada: Everything is Going Right Libia Posada’s 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
Aug
5
A regular tango class in Downtown Santa Cruz, offering a way to learn Latin dance in a social, cultural setting.
Aug
5
A weekly beginning hip hop house dance class. Participants will learn foundational movements, rhythms, and combinations in a structured, studio setting.
Aug
5
She to Shining Sea: Photography Exhibition
📍 NOAA's Sanctuary Exploration Center
🕒 5:30 PM – 8:00 PM · FREE
The Sanctuary Exploration Center is excited to announce "She to Shining Sea," a new photography exhibition featuring several local artists. Their work captures the beauty of Monterey Bay from a different perspective, and will leave guests feeling inspired by the natural beauty and amazing talent present in the Monterey Bay. Join us on Wednesday, August 5, from 5:30–8 p.m. at the Sanctuary Exploration Center in Santa Cruz for the opening reception: an evening immersed in the beauty of our sanctuary, exploring life as a wildlife photographer with the artists. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. for seating and a panel featuring the exhibition photographers starts at 6:00 p.m. Admission is free, open to all ages, and no registration is required. Light refreshments will be served. The exhibition will be on display at the Sanctuary Exploration Center from August 5 - September 27, viewable during public hours, Wednesday-Sunday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Aug
5
MUD SLINGING: BEGINNING WHEEL THROWING (2/4)
📍 Santa Cruz Mountains Art Center
🕒 6:00 PM – 8:30 PM · See listing
0 booked, 6 available Chris Finnie
Aug
5
Motion Pacific: Advanced Contemporary Jazz
📍 Motion Pacific at The 418 Project
🕒 6:30 PM – 8:15 PM · See listing
This is Motion Pacific's Advanced Contemporary Jazz Dance class for adults.
Aug
5
A weekly evening of tango in Santa Cruz, offering a chance to learn, dance, and connect with a new community.
Aug
5
Audrey Stanley Grove: Much Ado About Nothing
📍 Audrey Stanley Grove in DeLaveaga Park
🕒 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM · $25
Santa Cruz Shakespeare invites you to experience Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, un-der the trees and stars of the Audrey Stanley Grove in Santa Cruz’s DeLaveaga Park this summer. Much Ado About Nothing By William Shakespeare Directed by Charles Pasternak One of Shakespeare’s wittiest and most beloved comedies, the 2026 season will open with Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. Of all the couples in Shakespeare, perhaps none is more widely loved than Beatrice and Benedick. Their battle of wits; their antagonism turned to eroticism; their history. Before the play begins, they already seem to define each other. The audience, like the other characters in the play, wait with excitement as their wits clash, and eventually, as their love blossoms. Much Ado About Nothing runs July 11 – August 30. More information or to purchase tickets, follow the link in the orange above, or contact the box office Tuesday through Friday from noon to 4pm at the number listed above.
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