Fourth of July - Growing Up in Santa Cruz

Fourth of July Celebrations

By brad kava

There may not be fireworks but the Fourth of July is back big in Santa Cruz!

Aptos’s “World’s Shortest Parade” is back after a year off, with a huge assortment of family friendly people and crazies marching the few blocks between Wells Fargo and Trout Gulch. This is the event that made Growing Up fall in love with the town many years back. There won’t be a breakfast or park event because of the last minute drop of Covid restrictions, but we are thrilled. Come check us out, handing out the latest Growing Up with the cover story about berries. It’s berry good.

The parade starts at 10 a.m. and lasts an hour..supposedly. We’ve seen it stretch longer. It’s a touch of Mayberry in California and it reminds us what a small town feel our county has. (As does the County Fair, which returns in September.)

Scotts Valley, which usually has the area’s biggest fireworks show, had to cancel it, but will still have their parade at 3 p.m. featuring an airplane flyover. It can be seen along Scotts Valley Drive.

Watsonville will have a great bicycle ride on the Fourth led by Mayor Jimmy Dutra from 12:45 p.m. to 2 p.m.starting at the alleyway next to the Second Street Garage. One of the city’s new electric buses will lead the way and you can ride on it. Then, there’s a Red, White and Blue concert at City Plaza at 2 p.m. featuring the Watsonville Band, which has been performing on the country’s birthday for 75 years. There’s also a flyover at 2 p.m. featuring local pilots strutting their stuff. For more details check Spirit of Watsonville at City of Watsonville.org.

[From Julie Horner]

The Boulder Creek Business Association is hosting a virtual 4th of July parade this year because the timing of covid restrictions being lifted did not give the BCBA enough time to apply for the county permit necessary to host the parade downtown as usual. The county simply wasn’t issuing permits during the Red and Orange Tiers when the BCBA would have needed to submit the request.

So, like many other planners of big events, they’ve had to move the parade online. However, Historic Downtown Boulder Creek will be fully open with live music, vendors and sidewalk sales, raffles, prizes, giveaways, and everything else quite festive for the occasion.

Here’s what’s happening and how you can participate:

Deadline to submit your short video to be part of the online parade: June 18th

Time to watch the online parade: 10:00 to noon on Sunday, July 4

Link will be on the BCBA Facebook page and at www.bcba.net.

Sidewalk sale goes from 11:00 to 4:00 on Sunday, July 4th with over 20 stores participating.

More than 15 artists and local crafters will be participating in the sidewalk sale, and local musicians will be playing music everywhere.

The raffle is for a $460 value Weber Master Touch grill with tools, rotisserie accessory (tickets = $25 each or 5 for $100)