‘Tis the season for free music outdoors, and Santa Cruz County is happy to oblige

the stage is set at the Santa Cruz Wharf for free summer concerts
The stage is set at the Santa Cruz Wharf for free summer concerts.

From the wharf and Boardwalk in Santa Cruz to the Capitola Village beachfront — and all kinds of other spots — free concerts abound as spring turns to summer.

This story was originally featured in this week’s Weekender newsletter. Be first the first to hear about arts and entertainment news in Santa Cruz County — sign up for Wallace’s email newsletter here and and text alerts here.

June is coming, and that means a lot of great free outdoor live-music shows. On Tuesdays — actually just once a month, on the second Tuesday of the month — the Santa Cruz Wharf hosts a live band from 6 to 9 p.m. The next band up is Extra Large on June 13. On Wednesdays, Capitola Village is the hot spot with its annual Twilight Concert weekly series, set to launch June 14 with Jive Machine and running through the end of August.

And then on Thursdays, it’s the Boardwalk’s turn, with its weekly Live Music on the Colonnade series, striking up June 15 with Sang Matiz. And we haven’t even mentioned the wild menagerie of performing acts along the course of Wharf to Wharf on July 23, and the occasional pop-up show along East Cliff in Pleasure Point or on the bluffs at Seacliff. It’s going to be a great summer for live music in the open air.

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