Changemakers take note: 8 events you won’t want to miss in 2019

Spring brings with it fresh energy to get outside, participate in new experiences, be social, and learn something new. In celebration of the arrival of spring, we’ve rounded up eight inspiring events and festivals happening throughout 2019 (+ one bonus in 2020!) that you’ll want to add to your calendar now.

Earth Day Santa Cruz

San Lorenzo Park with many tents and people during the Earth Day Festival.

April 20 at San Lorenzo Park in Santa Cruz, CA

The Annual Earth Day Santa Cruz festival features more than 100 booths on environmental education topics as well as arts/crafts, a kid zone with hands-on activities, live music with the world-renowned SambaDa, a beer garden and delicious food and drinks, an electric vehicle showcase including ebike test rides, and more. Santa Cruz Permaculture will be hosting a booth there, so please come say hi! Learn more at the event page.




Village Building Convergence: “Roots of Resilience”

May 31 – June 9 in Portland, OR

The Village Building Convergence (VBC) is City Repair’s flagship event featuring over 30 community-built projects happening all over Portland, called Placemaking Projects. This includes street paintings, earthen buildings, and ecological landscaping. Additionally, the VBC hosts a series of evening events featuring speakers and performers who are leaders in the areas of food, housing, and environmental justice. Learn more at the website.




3rd Annual Open Streets Watsonville

June 2 in Downtown Watsonville, CA

For the third year, this popular car-free community event hosted by Bike Santa Cruz County will create a “pop-up park” where people can walk, bike, skate, dance, and play in the street with this stretch of road temporarily closed to cars. Open Streets Watsonville is completely free and open to all. Join in the fun for exercise, family-friendly activities, art, live music, educational resources, or to just play in the street! Learn more at the event page here.




Father’s Day Cherry Tasting

June 16 at Andy’s Orchard in Morgan Hill, CA

Every Father’s Day, Andy’s Orchard (founded in 1957) hosts a fruit tasting and tour. This year’s tasting is focused on cherries. The tour explores the farm stand, store/museum, orchard, and packing and drying facilities. It will cover the history of fruit, history of agriculture in the Santa Clara Valley, fruit growing, marketing, & varieties. Participants are welcome to savor firsthand the various fruits that are ripe at the time. Learn more and register at the website.




Organic Stone Fruit Jubilee

June 29 at the Mokichi Okada Association (MOA) Oasis Garden near Clovis, CA

The Organic Stone Fruit Jubilee features tasting and buying of fresh produce from local small farms that specialize in growing delicious varieties of nectarines, peaches, plums, pluots, and other specialty stone fruits. Kid-friendly activities, educational workshops, food and beverage booths, music by Good Medicine, a Japanese tea ceremony, and purifying therapy sessions are also on the schedule. You can buy tickets to this event here starting April 1st.




UCSC Harvest Festival

September 29 at UCSC Farm in Santa Cruz, CA

Celebrate the abundance of the fall harvest at UC Santa Cruz’s 30-acre organic farm. Fresh produce, live music, farm tours, cooking demonstrations, workshops, apple tasting, and much more await at this annual event. This annual festival takes place the first weekend of the academic calendar after classes begin each year. More event information will be available on the UCSC Farm website here.




Hoes Down Festival

October 5 at Full Belly Farm in Capay Valley, CA

The Hoes Down Harvest Festival is dedicated to honoring and promoting the knowledge of agricultural arts and sustainable rural living through inspiration and education. The event features live music, camping, dancing, farm tours, organic food & drinks, workshops & fun for children of all ages, farmers’ markets & crafts workshops and more! Learn more on the event website.




Bioneers Conference

October 18-20 in San Rafael, CA

The Bioneers Conference is a leading-edge forum where you can see tomorrow today: a future environment of hope. For almost 30 years, Bioneers has acted as a fertile hub of game-changing social and scientific innovators with breakthrough solutions for the world’s most pressing environmental and social challenges. A celebration of the genius of nature and human ingenuity, Bioneers connects people with solutions and each other through its acclaimed annual national conference and other programs. Santa Cruz Permaculture co-hosts the World Cafe tent at this conference each year, so please be sure to come say hello! This annual conference takes place the third weekend of October every year. Learn more about the Bioneers Conference.




And here’s a bonus one for the beginning of 2020!

EcoFarm Conference

January 22-25, 2020 in Pacific Grove, CA

As the oldest and largest organic farming event in the West, the EcoFarm Conference is a prime networking and educational hub for farmers, ranchers, distributors, retailers, activists, researchers, and educators. The conference features more than 70 workshops, intensives, keynote speakers, an exhibitor marketplace, seed swap, live entertainment, mixers, and organic culinary fare. Santa Cruz Permaculture hosts a booth in the exhibitor hall, so be sure to come say hello! Mark your calendar and check back on the website mid-August 2019 to register.




Looking for more opportunities to learn and practice permaculture? Santa Cruz Permaculture is offering a variety of courses this year, and you’re invited to join us! Visit our Courses page for the latest information.

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Get an email twice a month with regional permaculture news, offerings, and community events. We don’t share your email address, ever. Unsubscribe at any time. *Required field.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.