Town-gown friction is so last century. The locals love the students and the students love the locals, even if everybody doesn’t know it yet. Here are some cheap ways to get out and make friends with the natives.
First Friday Art Walk It’s easy to remember because it’s built into the name: on the first Friday of every month, venues all around Santa Cruz throw their doors open for an art viewing experience that is the absolute opposite of a snobby gallery crawl. Boutiques, sex shops, even nut stores are in on the act, showing off art by locals and providing scene and setting for throngs of mingling locals. You could call it community building, but we’d rather call it fun.
Farmers Markets If you want to see citizen Santa Cruzis foraging in its natural habitat, the place to be is any farmers market—and there are plenty. Stand after stand of beauty contest–worthy local fruits and greens, not to mention fish, baked goods and prepared foods, draw mobs of locals, gawkers and musicians for what almost always feels like a party. The most easily accessible markets from campus are the Saturday morning Westside market on Mission Street north of Swift; the Wednesday afternoon Downtown market at Lincoln and Cedar; and, of course, the Tuesday and Friday afternoon UCSC Farm & Garden Market Cart at Bay and High, which runs through early November.
Santa Cruz Community-Wide Garage Sale This Oct. 1–2, a glorious thing will happen: households throughout Santa Cruz will open their garages from 7am to 5pm and sell all the crap they don’t want anymore. Of course, one person’s trash is another’s treasure, and early birds are guaranteed to score big on furniture, rugs, clothes, dishes, sports equipment, camping gear, garden implements and who knows what else. Signs will be posted all around town, so bargain hunters need only step outside the door to stumble upon the Best. Deals. Ever.
Pacific Rim Film Festival Starting Friday, Oct. 14 and running through Wednesday, Oct. 19, the Pacific Rim Film Festival offers free screenings of feature films from South Korea, Japan, China, Mexico, India and other Pacific Rim nations. This is a high-quality, carefully curated film festival, and the fact that it’s free seems almost too good to be true. But it is true. This is a great cultural gift from a few generous philanthropists to the people of Santa Cruz, gratis. It’s a beautiful thing. www.pacrimfilmfestival.org.
Open Studios The first three weekends of October, the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County holds its annual Open Studios Art Tour. What does that mean? It means hundreds of artists opening their studios, second bedrooms and garages for art lovers to wander through, admiring, wishing for and perhaps even buying their work. The official guide is a steal at $20, but the fact is the artists hang up neon-colored signs at street corners, so anyone in Santa Cruz County who steps outside on an October weekend is likely to find his or her way to at least one groovy artist’s pad.
