This weekend the Cabrillo Music Art & Wine Festival turns 18 years old—legal and ready to party with 14,000 of her best friends (by last year’s count). “Festival within a festival” goers will have an opportunity to take a family vacation around the globe in just a city block, with musical performances from Ireland to Japan coupled with food from the furthest reaches of the globe paired with wines from local vines.
KUSP’s Bretty Taylor will lord over the Saturday, Aug. 8, proceedings, when African, Chinese and Irish harp set the tone before Watsonville trumpet player Eleazar Cortés’ Mexican mariachi kicks off at high noon, followed by Kuzanga Marimba and Xochipilli Compañia de Danze Mexicana, a festive flurry of skirts and guitarra in the tradition of Chihuahua, Colima, Jalisco and Nuevo Leon, Mexico. Havana Jazz—Bosco El Gitano’s new outfit—soothes the festival into late afternoon, followed by Koumbemba, a West African, Reggae-inspired group led by Karamo, a Senegalese master of the 21-string kora. The Desert Dream Company with Orient’al were selected as a closing act to whet the audience appetite for the main event Saturday night inside the Civic—Spice, Perfumes, Toxins!
Local firecracker Kim Luke emcees Sunday’s lineup, which starts off with tried and true Santa Cruz favorite The Great Morgani and his Lycra-loving accordion, moves into the dainty darlings from the Santa Cruz Ballet Theatre, and is followed by the thunderous and thrilling Watsonville Taiko. Motion Pacific Dancers lead into the late afternoon, just before Aza, a western-infused Amazigh and Arabic musical outfit, followed by the boisterous Celtic soul of Molly’s Revenge. The mini-festival closes out with the China Cats, a local Dead cover band, in celebration and preparation for the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra’s Sugar Magnolia Grateful Dead tribute at the Civic.
And one musn’t forget, “art and wine” are this festival’s middle name. Whilst parents plug away at the latest offerings from Bargetto Winery, Hallcrest Vineyards, Beauregard Vineyards and Storrs Winery, the wee tots are free, literally, to run amok in the Creativity Tent for Kids. Saturday’s workshops include a very brave soul in charge of teaching rhythm percussion, as well as faux stained glass making and magnet-art. Day two highlights kites, prints, flowers, drawing and digeridoo-making. Creative Reuse Project will unveil its latest and greatest community sculpture, built, as always, from the building blocks of post-consumer life–the rediscovered, repurposed and recycled
And of course, there will be plenty to chew on as attendees eat their way from Chestnut to Center Street. This year, tortilla casserole and Peking chicken wraps headline a sprited lineup of favorites, from shwarma to pizza and everything in between.
CABRILLO MUSIC ART & WINE FESTIVAL is Sat-Sun, Aug. 8-9, from 11am to 8pm outside Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, 307 Church St, Santa Cruz. Free.
