Half Halloween, Vintage Volkswagens & GZA? Yep. 🖤🚐🎤

May 25

Happy Memorial Day Santa Cruz! Memorial Day is a holiday rooted in both reflection and celebration. It’s a time to honor those who gave their lives in military service, while also gathering with family and friends for one of the county’s favorite long weekends of the year. From redwood festivals and vintage Volkswagens to spooky markets and karaoke competitions….spoiler alert: Santa Cruz County has a packed week ahead once again. 🌲🎶🚗🔥

The week gets rolling Tuesday, May 26 (6-8pm), when the Santa Cruz Wharf’s Tuesday Night Live concert series returns to the Wharf Commons stage. Kicking off the season—which runs every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of June through August, with a finale show in September—is SambaDá, featuring high-energy Brazilian beats 💃🔥. Organizers recommend bringing a chair, but SambaDá isn’t exactly sit-still music. 🎶 And if you’re not ready for the night to end when the music stops, head upstairs to Vino by the Sea for the after party. 🍷✨

By the time Redwood Mountain Faire rolls around each year, Santa Cruz County is fully emerging from its spring cocoon and ready to rock headlong into summer. 🌲🎶 On May 30 & 31 (gates 10:30am; Event: 11am-8pm), Roaring Camp in Felton transforms into a two-day romp of live music, local artists & makers, food vendors and vibrant Santa Cruz Mountains energy. There are train rides for the kids, local wine and beer for the adults, multiple stages humming beneath the trees and enough people dancing barefoot to make you briefly consider abandoning footwear. 🍷🚂✨ Even better, proceeds support local nonprofits—so your festival weekend helps fund community programs close to home.

Friday, May 29 offers two wildly different ways to design your own adventure. 🌊🦅 Wilder Ranch State Park is hosting a Guided Coastal Birding Walk, with a three-hour (9am-1pm), 2.5-mile hike exploring the park’s coastal bluffs, wildflowers and sweeping ocean scenery. Binoculars, good walking shoes and layers for changing coastal weather are encouraged. Meet next to the park map in Wilder Ranch’s main parking lot. Rain cancels. Vehicle day-use fee is $10.

If your plans lean less toward seabirds and more hip-hop, join fans clamoring toward The Catalyst to see Wu-Tang Clan founding member GZA on Friday night (doors: 7pm; show: 8pm). 🎤🔥 Widely considered among the greatest MCs of all time, GZA helped shape one of the most influential hip-hop groups in music history and will celebrate the 30th anniversary of his landmark album Liquid Swords during his May 29 show.

On Saturday, May 30, Capitola Village is preparing for an invasion of vintage Volkswagens 🚐🌴, with the return of VDUBs in the Village. Hundreds of lovingly restored Bugs, Buses and other VW classics converge for a full day of chrome, nostalgia and beach-town cruising. Even if you don’t know a carburetor from a cupholder, it’s hard not to fall a little in love with a perfectly restored VW Bus parked beside the beach.

And because this is Santa Cruz County, where no holiday weekend is complete without at least a little delightful weirdness, The Grove Event Center at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk is hosting Mockingbird Lane: Halfway to Halloween on Sunday, May 31 (12-5pm). 🕯️🖤 The free Art & Curiosities Market is open to all ages and features more than 50 artists and merchants offering oddities, jewelry, ceramics, apparel, artwork and other gloriously strange finds for the spooky souls among us. Honestly, if sunscreen, summer beach vibes and flip flops aren’t your thing, this may be your people. 👻✨

Still looking for more? Quick reminder… The Good Times Best of Santa Cruz 2026 🏆 issue is out now! Check it out.

Now let’s get into the news… Have a great week!! 💛

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

Man Dies After Car Plunges Off 500 Foot Cliff in Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz Has One of the Nation’s Largest Population Drops
Hope Village Opens Its Doors
County Releases Measure Q Grant Recommendations
Three Candidates Vie for District 4 Supervisor’s Seat
Dream Inn Has a New Chef
Foot Traffic Jammed
Plus Love It or Hate It, AI is All Around Us, Can Santa Cruzans Save The Catalyst?, Snake Oil? Nope!, Seeking Self-Understanding…and Much More!

A 58-year-old Santa Rosa man died after his car went over a 500 foot cliff on Highway 1 in Santa Cruz County.

Santa Cruz Has One of the Nation’s Largest Population Drops

Among cities nationwide with more than 50k residents, Santa Cruz saw one of the top ten largest percentage decreases in population from 2024 to 2025. The dip affected the wider county as well. The population change does not appear to be driven by changes at UCSC, where enrollment increased.

Hope Village Opens Its Doors

A new 34-bed navigation center aimed at helping unhoused residents living along the Pajaro River corridor officially opened Monday in Watsonville, marking a major milestone in a rare cross-county homelessness partnership.

County Releases Measure Q Grant Recommendations

Santa Cruz County officials have released preliminary funding recommendations for the inaugural Measure Q Grant Program, revealing the initial thought process in determining how roughly $2.7 million will eventually be spent on different projects in the county.

Three Candidates Vie for District 4 Supervisor’s Seat

The June 2 primary will reduce the field of three to two, or possibly just one if a candidate gets more than 50% of the vote. Incumbent Felipe Hernandez is facing a challenge from Elias Gonzales and Tony Nuñez.

Dream Inn Has a New Chef

Chef Michelle Gomez’s cooking odyssey started at age 7. As she takes over the executive chef role at beach-adjacent Dream Inn in the heart of Santa Cruz’s waterfront, the things she learned as a kid still resonate.

Foot Traffic Jammed

Walk down the narrow strip of concrete that runs for 800 feet behind a row of oceanfront homes in Rio Del Mar, at both ends you’ll find six-foot cyclone fences with green slats blocking the way. The courts had already affirmed that the public can walk there, now the question is when that law will be enforced.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Playing With Digital Fire

In this week’s cover story, Good Times writer DNA asks, where do AI, art and humanity intersect? Do they?

Funding Hope

Can the people of Santa Cruz own the Catalyst? That’s what two local entrepreneurs think and they’ve started a campaign to see if people are interested.

Snake Oil?

Despite its name, the 2021 Snake Oil Cab from Priest Ranch in Napa Valley is actually a gorgeous Cabernet Sauvignon.

Below the Surface

In her weekly wellness column, Eli zabeth Borel li shares two conclusions: First, most of us could benefit from a little more self-understanding. Second, there are 10,000 ways to get there, which can feel a little mindboggling. Pun absolutely intended.

Trigger Plays

The Theater Arts Program of the Department of Performance, Play & Design of UC Santa Cruz is producing famed playwright and citizen artist Luis Alfaro’s play: “Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles.” Running May 22 through May 31 (2pm) at the UCSC Theater Arts Experimental Theater.

Making a Scene

The new CD “Santa Cruz Scene Celebration Vol. 1” (aka SCSC) is a 12-band compilation of surf, emo, hard rock, indie folk and punk-inspired attitude featuring some of the acts who have been relentlessly making a name for themselves like Trestles, Perch, and Nothing Over Silence.

Teen’s Four Novels

Olive D. Wilson discovered her love for writing early in life, chronicling her thoughts, experiences and ideas the way many writers do. Over time, that practice evolved.

Half Halloween, Vintage Volkswagens & GZA? Yep. 🖤🚐🎤

Goth Hair, Powdered Wigs & Ax Throwing… Obviously! 🖤🪓🎻🌊🎶🔥🐻