Surf’s Up, Lost Boys Return & Murray Bridge Closes 🌊🧛♂️🦇🚧
Hey There Santa Cruz!
Santa Cruz went full technicolor glitter parade this weekend. 🌈✨ Pride celebrations filled downtown with music, sparkle, drag performances and thousands of people cheering, dancing, reconnecting and celebrating exactly who they are, as Pacific Avenue transformed into one giant block party for love, identity and community.
Meanwhile, the feel-good energy extended well beyond the parade route. During California Adopt-a-Pet Day, the Santa Cruz SPCA helped 38 animals find new homes — giving dozens of dogs and cats their own reason to celebrate this week. It was a great weekend to be in Santa Cruz — whether you walk on two legs or four.🐾
⚾ If baseball nostalgia is your thing, Bookshop Santa Cruz has a fun Monday night on deck. Legendary player and manager Dusty Baker stops by tonight from 7–8pm to celebrate the launch of his new memoir, “Crossroads: A Memoir in Baseball and Life,” alongside co-author Steve Kettmann. The free event includes a conversation about Baker’s decades in the game, followed by a ticketed photo opportunity with a pre-signed copy of the book. 📚
🎶 Tuesday Night Live returns to the Santa Cruz Wharf on June 9 (6-8pm) with The Viva Santana Show bringing Latin rock rhythms to the Wharf Commons stage. The free summer series runs every second and fourth Tuesday, with Wharf pop-ups, dinner spots nearby and after-parties upstairs at Vino by the Sea. Lawn chairs are welcome. Barefoot dancing? Probably even more welcome. 😉💃🕺
🌅 On Wednesday, Capitola’s Twilight Concert series continues June 10 (6–8pm) with Trestles bringing live music back for the second concert of the summer. The only thing more packed than the lawn-chair-coated beach and walkway along the Esplanade will be the lines at Pizza My Heart. As the dancing starts, the collective thought bubble over the crowd becomes “work tomorrow?…yeah, welp, that’s a tomorrow problem.” 🎶
By Thursday, you’ve got options. Get reacquainted with the couch before the weekend spins back up? Or…check out one of the spots people keep talking about lately, including Midtown favorite The Midway, downtown cocktail lounge The Hotel, longtime date-night staple Lago di Como or Tacos Los Reyes near the Boardwalk. 🍸🌮🍝 Need more ideas? Check out the suggestions from local food influencer Eat With Tanika. I’m obsessed with her Instagram feed…ok, pun intended. I want to try everything she’s eating lately!
Feeling social? The Crow’s Nest Beach BBQ series returns Thursday night (5:30-8pm) with live music from Ancestree, dancing and BBQ right on Santa Cruz Harbor Beach, while Bargetto Winery’s Thursday night music series continues in Soquel with Big Bad Wolf performing live from 6–8pm in the winery’s creekside courtyard. Wine by the glass and food from Shockwave will be available for purchase. 🍷🎶
If your idea of a good Thursday night involves sports, the World Cup officially kicks off June 11, with local bars and restaurants gearing up for watch parties and events for soccer fans through July. ⚽
🌊On Friday night, June 12 (6-9pm), the Save The Waves Film Festival comes home to the Rio Theatre for the world premiere of its 2026 lineup of surf and environmental films. Hosted by Santa Cruz-based Save The Waves Coalition, the evening blends jaw-dropping surf cinematography with stories centered around coastal conservation and ocean protection. After the films, a whole lot of people will be leaving the Rio wishing they surfed more often. 🎬🏄♂️
🎉 Santa Cruz’s 35th annual Juneteenth parade returns Saturday, June 13 in Downtown Santa Cruz with a lively sidewalk parade starting at 12noon near the BLM mural and dancing its way toward Laurel Park behind the London Nelson Community Center, where the celebration continues until 6pm. Held ahead of the official June 19 federal holiday, this year’s theme is “Resilience.” The longtime community gathering features live music, dance, poetry from the Diaspora, soul food, craft booths, youth activities, an Ancestors Altar, dance instruction, sack races and a basketball clinic, plus performances throughout the day from artists including Gina René and the Juneteenth Choir, The Joint Chiefs and Phreeborn & the Phreequency. ✨
🐚 Also on Saturday, Seacliff State Beach hosts Ocean Fest (11am–4pm) with ocean-themed art vendors, live music, food trucks, marine education booths and kids activities. Earlier Saturday morning, classic car fans can watch the Capitola Rod & Custom Classic Car Show roll in with a cruise from the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk to Capitola before the village fills with chrome, tailfins and vintage-car nostalgia until 4pm along the Esplanade.
🧛♂️ And apparently it’s also becoming a full-on Lost Boys weekend in Santa Cruz. Atlantis Fantasyworld hosts Jamison Newlander — aka Alan Frog from the cult-classic vampire movie filmed partly in Santa Cruz — for a signing event Saturday (1-5pm), while the Beach Boardwalk follows things up Friday night (9-10:45pm) with a free beach screening of The Lost Boys in front of the Colonnade. Newlander will also appear 5-8pm at The Walk inside the Boardwalk before the movie for photos with fans, which feels about as Santa Cruz as it gets. 🦇
🛍️ And if you somehow still have energy left by Sunday, June 14 (9am-5pm) the Santa Cruz Antique Faire returns downtown along Lincoln Street between Pacific and Cedar. If you’re anything like me, it starts with “I’ll just take a quick look around” and somehow ends two hours later with a pair of vintage Levi’s, gorgeous glassware, a book on the history of surfing, old matchbooks and a deep need to talk loudly and proudly about all the amazing treasures I’ve unearthed. ✨
Now let’s get into the news… Have a great week! 💛
News Highlights:
Murray Street Bridge to Close for Summer
Man Falls to his Death from Cliff
5-Car Crash on Highway 1 in Santa Cruz
Nuñez Passes 50% of Vote for District 4 County Supervisor
World Cup Comes to Santa Cruz County
Martinelli’s Cancels Watsonville Growers Apple Contracts
Watsonville Community Hospital CEO to Step Down
Plus the Return of VegFest, Ayurvedic Healing, Winging it at Woody’s in Watsonville, a Special Swirl of Pino, Do’s & Don’ts of AI…and Much More!
TOP STORIES
Murray Street Bridge to Close for Summer
The Murray Street Bridge in Santa Cruz is scheduled to close again as early as June 10, leaving local businesses and commuters preparing for a challenging summer.
Man Falls to his Death from Cliff
A man in his early 20s died after falling from a cliff at Bonny Doon Beach early Saturday morning, according to Santa Cruz Fire and CAL FIRE CZU.
5-Car Crash on Highway 1 in Santa Cruz
A five-car crash on state Highway 1 in Santa Cruz County on Saturday left one person with major injuries, the California Highway Patrol said.
Nuñez Passes 50% of Vote for District 4 County Supervisor
Tony Nuñez has 50.49% of the votes for Santa Cruz County Supervisor District 4 in the latest election results released Friday. If his majority holds after the remaining ballots are processed, he will win the seat outright. Read more primary election results here.
World Cup Comes to Santa Cruz County
Even in a county better known nationally for surfing, skateboarding and redwood forests, local leaders say soccer has long been woven into the community’s identity.
Martinelli’s Cancels Watsonville Growers Apple Contracts
Martinelli's has ended contracts with some Watsonville apple growers, leaving orchards searching for new production options and raising concerns about the local apple industry.
Watsonville Community Hospital CEO to Step Down
Watsonville Community Hospital CEO Stephen Gray will step down July 10 after leading the community-owned hospital for more than 2½ years. The hospital has not yet named an interim CEO, but expects to do so by the end of June.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Santa Cruz VegFest returns bigger than ever.
Watsonville Community Hospital has been awarded $10.6 million through California’s Distressed Hospital Small Grant Program.
The Amazing Gifts of Gabrielle Stocker
A generous donation amazes local musicians.
Good Times writer and author Elizabeth Borelli tells us, you don’t have to be a devoted yogi to have heard of Ayurveda, the ancient wellness system that continues to influence health practices today.
In this week’s column, food writer Mark C. Anderson lets us know that Woody’s Watsonville has made an informal soft opening, plus World Cup wine and Mentone #2.
Swirls of summer are in the air! That means it’s time to swirl something special around your glass. And wine columnist Josie Cowden says that would be Bouchaine Winery’s 2024 Vin Gris of Pinot Noir ($36).
The question Good Times readers are pondering this week: Name a task AI should do and one it should never do? Send us your thoughts at editor@weeklys.com
WAIT, WHAT?! 🚕🤦♂️📱
Uber recently released its 10th annual Lost & Found Index this week, once again proving that Americans are absolutely feral in the back seat of rideshares. Alongside the usual forgotten phones, wallets and keys, riders this year also managed to leave behind dentures, human hair, a package of live butterflies, not one, but two wedding gowns, a mannequin, 20 pounds of duck sausage and a toboggan.
Other mysteriously abandoned items included a wizard wand, a fish tank, a propane tank, a child’s prosthetic eye and “420 donuts” — which somehow raises more questions than it answers. Uber says it’s now rolling out new app features to help riders retrieve lost items faster, beginning in California and several other states.
But seriously, if you exit an Uber without noticing you forgot your TOBOGGAN, you are now 100% someone I need to party with.