Santa Cruz Weekend Guide: Things to Do August 21–23, 2026
What to Do This Weekend in Santa Cruz County
Cider and creepy things. Live music under the summer sky. Flowers, farmers markets, Shakespeare in the redwoods and one very determined group of people swimming, biking and running through Aptos before most of us finish our first coffee.
Late August around here is doing what late August does best: refusing to behave like summer is almost over.
This weekend has a little bit of everything, but most importantly, it has Summerween, which means apparently we have collectively decided that waiting until October for skeletons and cider is completely unnecessary.
Correct decision.
Here are a few things worth leaving the house for in Santa Cruz, Capitola, Aptos and Watsonville this weekend.
Ease Into It
Watsonville Farmers Market
Start the weekend with flowers, peak-summer produce, prepared food and the beautifully chaotic pleasure of buying far more fruit than one household realistically needs.
The move: farmers market first, dinner downtown, then walk over to Music in the Plaza.
Market DetailsMusic in the Plaza
Watsonville's summer concert series takes over City Plaza Park Friday evening. Bring a blanket or chair, pick up food downtown and settle in for two hours of live music under the summer sky.
Low effort. High reward. Exactly how Friday night should behave.
Event DetailsDeath and Saxes on the Garden Stage
A free early-evening jazz set in the garden at The Crêpe Place. Order something delicious, grab a drink and let someone else provide your Friday-night soundtrack.
Bonus points for a garden table and nowhere you absolutely need to be afterward.
See the ShowBig Bad Wolf at Abbott Square
Classic rock, soul and blues in Abbott Square with food, cocktails and the MAH right next door. One of those easy downtown nights where you can arrive hungry and let the evening figure itself out.
Event DetailsChoose Your Adventure
Caffeine Cruisers
Coffee, cars and a parking lot full of people who are far more functional at 7 a.m. on a Saturday than most of us have any intention of being.
Classics, exotics, trucks and daily drivers are all welcome.
Grab coffee, wander the cars, then reward your unreasonable morning productivity with breakfast somewhere in Capitola.
Aptos Farmers Market at Cabrillo College
One of the area's best Saturday rituals. Expect seasonal produce, flowers, artisan breads, cheeses, seafood, local meats, mushrooms, sauces, pastries and plenty of reasons to suddenly become the kind of person who cooks an elaborate Saturday dinner.
Market DetailsMonterey Bay Dahlia Show
Hundreds of dahlias in all their wildly overachieving glory take over Capitola Mall for the Monterey Bay Dahlia Society's annual show.
If you love flowers, photography or anything unnecessarily gorgeous, add this to the route.
SUMMERWEEN
Santa Cruz Cider Co. 13th Anniversary Party
SANTA CRUZ CIDER CO. · 65 HANGAR WAY · WATSONVILLE
Halloween has apparently escaped containment and I am completely fine with it.
Santa Cruz Cider Co. is celebrating its 13th anniversary with a full-blown Summerween party in Watsonville, with Krampus Santa Cruz, creepy tunes, cider and a Dark Market packed with vendors.
There will also be special cider donuts, local cider, spooky-season energy and the glorious absurdity of summoning Krampus while it is still technically beach weather.
This is my pick of the weekend.
Wear black. Drink cider. Buy something strange. Summer can handle it.
Santa Cruz Cider Co.Elkhorn Slough Reserve Guided Tour
For a completely different Saturday mood, head into the reserve for a docent-led walk through one of the most beautiful ecological pockets on the Central Coast.
Tours are offered Saturday and Sunday and are first come, first served.
Otters before Krampus? There are worse itineraries.
Tour DetailsEarthless + Primitive Ring at Moe's Alley
If Summerween merely awakens your appetite for something louder, instrumental psych-rock band Earthless takes over Moe's Alley Saturday night with Primitive Ring.
From Krampus to psychedelic guitars. A perfectly reasonable progression.
Tickets + DetailsFinish Strong or Do Absolutely Nothing
The Sandman Triathlon
One of Santa Cruz County's longest-running triathlons returns to Seacliff. Racers tackle a .75-mile ocean swim around the historic S.S. Palo Alto, a 13-mile bike ride through Aptos and a 4-mile beach run to New Brighton and back.
The event raises money for local State Parks, lifeguard operations and the Junior Lifeguard program.
Participate if that is your particular flavor of joy. Otherwise bring coffee and clap enthusiastically for people with astonishing cardiovascular systems.
Race DetailsMacbeth in the Grove
Sunday afternoon gets considerably darker with Shakespeare's Macbeth, performed outdoors beneath the trees at the Audrey Stanley Grove.
Ambition. Prophecy. Murder. Redwoods. Just a gentle little Sunday matinee.
Tickets + DetailsMighty Mike Schermer & Friends
A Sunday afternoon birthday celebration for guitarist Mighty Mike Schermer, with friends joining him at Moe's Alley.
Day drinking and live blues remain one of civilization's better inventions.
Show DetailsFences by August Wilson
Close the weekend under the trees with August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning Fences, part of Santa Cruz Shakespeare's 2026 festival season.
Dinner first, theatre after, phone away. Very civilized.
Tickets + DetailsThe Love Me Stone Weekend
FRIDAY: wander the Watsonville Farmers Market, grab something to eat, then stay downtown for Music in the Plaza.
SATURDAY MORNING: coffee + Caffeine Cruisers in Capitola or pastries and flowers at the Aptos Farmers Market.
SATURDAY AFTERNOON: put on something black and head straight to Summerween at Santa Cruz Cider Co.
SATURDAY NIGHT: Earthless at Moe's Alley if you still have any social battery left.
SUNDAY: coffee by the water, watch the Sandman racers do wildly athletic things, eat a very good lunch and finish with Shakespeare in the Grove.