Low Tide Local
Spring Lands All At Once
Edition #003 · April 16, 2026
Low Tide Local
Edition #003 · April 16, 2026
Spring's here for real now. Two arts festivals open tonight, Emmylou Harris and Earth Day land on the same Saturday, and the redwoods up at the Quarry are hosting a Grateful Dead set Sunday night. Bring layers if you're heading anywhere coastal after sundown.
Scotts Valley Rallies Around Thai Heart
Richie Yimsamrarn — front-of-house at Thai Heart on Mount Hermon Road — is managing a brain tumor diagnosis. The Scotts Valley Chamber set up a GoFundMe, and his landlord Ben Ow has stepped in too. Sarah, his wife, runs the kitchen, and the recipes come from her family in Ayutthaya. If you haven't been, the tom kha and drunken noodles are where to start. Showing up to eat is the simplest way to help.
Emmylou Harris Headlines the Civic Saturday Night
14 Grammys, 50 years of records, a catalog deep enough that no two setlists run the same. Harris is touring behind the reissue of Spyboy — her 1998 live record with Buddy Miller and Daryl Johnson. Saturday at the Civic, 8 PM, $73. See it before the room empties out for the Quarry the next night.
Ripple Effect Arts Festival Opens Tonight
Volunteer-organized, no big institution behind it, timed to California's Arts, Culture & Creativity Month. 11 days of visual art, dance, music, lit, fashion, and food across the county — Watsonville to Davenport. Whatever's happening in your part of town this week, something's on the schedule. rippleartsfestsantacruz.org.
★ = family-friendly
★ Downtown Santa Cruz Farmers Market · 1–5 PM · Cedar St, Downtown · Free
Same routine. Show up around 3 if you want it quieter.
Santa Cruz Dance Week Opens · April 16–24 · Various venues
Motion Pacific runs this every spring — nine days of open classes, dance in unlikely places, and dancing in the streets. Class passes for the studio sessions, plenty of free events too. Worth a look at the full schedule even if you don't dance.
Ripple Effect Arts Festival Opens · April 16 (5 PM) – April 26 · Countywide
11 days, nine art categories, venues across the county. Volunteer-run, grassroots, timed to California's Arts, Culture & Creativity Month. Pick something off the schedule.
Stockwell Cellars: Sip, Savor & Sway with Tsunami Band · 5:30–8:30 PM · 1100 Fair Ave, Westside · Free
Stockwell skips the standard tasting on Fridays and turns the place into a music room. Tsunami Band's doing rock and R&B. Slight of Hand pizza is catering. Pay for the wine and the pizza, the music's on the house.
★ Tropical Flowers Watercolor Workshop · 10 AM–1 PM · Palace Art Supply, Capitola Village · $44.52
Three-hour beginner-friendly workshop with materials included. If watercolor's been on your "I'd try it" list, this is a low-stakes way in.
★ Earth Day Festival · 11:30 AM–4 PM · Cooper St, Pacific Ave & Abbott Square, Downtown · Free
The county's biggest Earth Day event. Six 20-minute composting workshops through the day, vendor booths, face painting, handmade crafts. The City and Abbott Square run it together.
Emmylou Harris · 8 PM · Civic Auditorium, 307 Church St, Downtown · $73
Spyboy reissue tour. The kind of show you tell people about. Grab tickets if you haven't.
★ Santa Cruz Beach Train · 10 AM–4 PM · Roaring Camp, 5401 Graham Hill Rd, Felton · $32–$47
Felton to the Boardwalk and back. The redwoods on the way down are the reason to do it.
★ Santa Cruz Makers Market · 10 AM–5 PM · Pacific Ave at Lincoln, Downtown · Free
Local makers, full block of Pacific. Easy Sunday browse before lunch.
Quarry Amphitheater: Gillian Welch & David Rawlings Play Grateful Dead Acoustic Reckoning · Doors 6 PM, show 7 PM · 1156 High St, UCSC
The Quarry in spring with two of the best acoustic players alive doing a Dead set. The room is open-air, the sightlines are everywhere, and Welch and Rawlings doing Grateful Dead is the kind of pairing that's almost too on-the-nose for Santa Cruz.
★ Earth Day Story-Time at Rispin Mansion Park · 11 AM–12 PM · 2000 Wharf Rd, Capitola · Free
Library puts this on at the Rispin Mansion grounds. Easy Tuesday morning if you've got little ones.
Stockwell Cellars — Westside
Eric and Suzanne Stockwell's winery on Fair Ave doesn't look like much from the outside. Warehouse front, light-industrial block, easy to drive past. Eric was making wine at home in the early 2000s while running a welding and metal fab shop in that same building. By 2014 the welding bench was out, the tasting room was in, and the rest of the shop followed. Concrete floors. Stage in the back. Free music every Friday with a different band, Slight of Hand pizza catering. Start with the Chenin Blanc or the Pinot. This week's Tsunami Band; spring lineup's on the site.
Earth Day Festival — Saturday, April 18
Cooper Street, Pacific Ave, and Abbott Square turn into one connected event from 11:30 to 4. Six composting workshops, vendor booths, face painting, the works. It's free, it's family-friendly, and it's the closest thing to a town-wide Saturday this stretch of April offers. Park early — the Cedar lot fills by noon. Earthdaysc.org has the full schedule.
That's #003. If something's happening in Santa Cruz County that we should know about, tell us here or just reply to this email.
See you next Thursday.
— Low Tide Local