Good Times Santa Cruz

Enter for a chance to win a $50 gift certificate to The Crow's Nest Restaurant in Santa Cruz. Drawing Date is December 3, 2026.

Santa Cruz’s first Porchfest brings 53 bands to 14 porches on Oct. 3. Organizer Darrow Feldstein turns front steps into stages for a free day of music and community.

Cabrillo Gallery’s La Resiliencia brings together 24 Latino/a/x artists exploring family, memory and resilience. Free exhibition through Oct. 27.

Santa Cruz County’s Open Studios returns for its 41st year with more than 350 artists, three October weekends and a new mobile app. Christina Waters explores the studios, preview exhibits and wearable art of I.B. Bayo.

Family, memory and collective strength shape Cabrillo Gallery’s LatinXperiencia 2026: La Resiliencia, bringing together 24 artists exploring what sustains us through upheaval and change.

Santa Cruz writers and artists join a chorus of resistance in Winter in America (Still, a new anthology exploring political turmoil, grief and the possibilities of community.

At Los Freseros Paleteria in Ben Lomond, Elizabeth Ramirez and Hugo Moreles serve Mexican-inspired desserts, savory snacks and warm hospitality, from concha ice cream sandwiches to fruit piled with chamoy and treats.

Evil Wings fuels downtown Santa Cruz’s late-night revival, while Mark C. Anderson makes a case for local pizza supremacy and checks in on the region’s growing vegan scene.

Adrian Belew talks King Crimson, BEAT’s dream-band chemistry and new drummer Terry Bozzio as the quartet prepares to open its final North American tour of Crimson music at the Quarry in Santa Cruz.

Another battery fire at Moss Landing has renewed fears among restaurant owners, who describe lost sales, missed emergency alerts and uncertainty about their businesses’ future.

Twin Temple’s Alexandra and Zachary James bring vintage rock ’n’ roll and Satanic spectacle to the Catalyst on Friday, Oct. 2.

Filling in for Brad Kava, DNA welcomes October’s creative bounty, from Open Studios to Porchfest, and invites readers to find connection through local art and music.

Readers question addiction terminology, celebrate Janus CEO Amber Williams and share a fatal DUI case update. Christina Waters responds to criticism of her music review.

Lower prices, bigger crowds at the county fair A cheaper ticket appears to have helped bring people back through the gates. Lookout reports that Santa Cruz County Fair attendance rose 11% after admission prices were reduced. The five-day tally topped 53,000, a figure that includes visitors, volunteers and staff. Opening day alone drew more than […]

Fall has always carried a back-to-school energy, no matter how old you are. Even decades after that last first day of school, there’s something about September that makes learning something new feel especially exciting. Fortunately, you don’t have to take out a student loan or quit your day job to head back to the classroom. […]

I wake at four, twitching in the dark with pathological remorse over how I threw away my college education: in 1969 I dropped out of UCSC to become a professional folk singer. That led to a lot of construction work. With pre-dawn cortisol and adrenaline rushes. I conclude that I’m a waste of protoplasm. Later […]

ARIES March 21-April 19 Orchids may lure pollinating insects with ingenious illusions rather than nectar. Some mimic the look or fragrance of other flowers. Others resemble female insects so convincingly that hopeful males unknowingly assist with pollination. From this, we might conclude that nature can be as duplicitous as humans. But rather than being bummed […]

The Digital NEST tech nonprofit settled a sexual harassment lawsuit centered on allegations against Pajaro Valley Unified School District Trustee Gabriel Medina, according to court documents. A former employee filed the 2020 court action that involved incidents before Medina was elected to the public school oversight board. The former employee—The Pajaronian withholds names of people […]