On Saturday, the marine layer will burn off just in time and Abbott Square in downtown Santa Cruz will be turned over to our youngest residents. Kids Day returns May 2, transforming Pacific Avenue and Cooper Street into a four-hour party of face paint, sidewalk games, garage bands, and with the kind of joy that doesn’t require a credit card. From noon to 4pm families can wander a corridor closed to traffic and open to imagination, where 42 booths offer free activities by design (Be Natural Music starts at 11:30 am.)
Shiri Gradek, Director of Marketing and Events for the Downtown Association of Santa Cruz, says, “We’re always trying to create activations that draw visitors downtown,” Gradek says. “But Kids Day really focuses on families, especially families with younger children, to remind them that downtown is a safe and welcoming place.”
Downtown Santa Cruz, like many downtowns, carries competing narratives: lively and local, but sometimes unpredictable. Kids Day leans hard into the counter-story of an afternoon where the loudest sounds are laughter and beautiful harmonies from teenage bands covering ’90s hits.
Abbott Square General Manager Joey Ward says, “We’ve done Kids Day for years and it keeps growing. The music they play is incredible. Be Natural Music is going to do a three-hour thing, and some of these kids are crazy talented, playing styles that might speak to an older person. This gives them a chance to build their confidence and their own sense of pride.”
Gradek’s job is to build that environment from the ground up. She creates the events, coordinates the moving pieces, and, on days like this, essentially orchestrates a temporary city within the city.
“This is about drawing local families downtown,” she says. “Showing them this is a safe, cool place to be. There are so many businesses that serve children and young families, and Kids Day highlights that.”
Every exhibitor, whether a dance academy, museum, youth program, or local business, is required to offer a free activity or game. That means a child can spend the entire afternoon bouncing from booth to booth without spending a dollar. There’s face painting, hands-on crafts, interactive demos, and plenty of opportunities to try something new without the friction of a price tag.
“If families want to spend money, they can, but it’s important to us that we create spaces like this for everyone, regardless of income.”
That said, businesses are leaning in with Kids Day specials; discounted meals, free treats, and in-store activities that extend the event beyond the street closures. But the heart of the day is on the street, and on the stage.
At Abbott Square, local music school Be Natural Music will take over the stage from 11:30am to 2:30pm, showcasing a lineup of teenage bands assembled and coached through the school’s “garage band” model.
“They curate bands out of students,” Gradek explains. “You’re a drummer, she’s a guitarist, he’s a bassist—and they teach them how to be in a band together.”
Be Natural Music will be followed by Jewel Box, another teen band with local roots. Gradek says their name is inspired by a neighborhood in Capitola, playing from 3 to 4 pm.
Elsewhere, Pacific Avenue becomes its own stage. Pop-up performances—dance, movement, spontaneous bursts of spectacle—appear in the street, closed to cars. If the goal is to remind people what downtown can be, Kids Day might do more than that. It might send families home with a sense that Santa Cruz, with all its contradictions, can still feel like it belongs to them. It does on May 2nd.
Kids Day is a partnership between the Downtown Santa Cruz, Abbott Square, Growing up Santa Cruz and sponsored by Google Cloud.
KIDS DAY LIVE EVENTS
Be Natural Bands – Abbott Square Stage 11:30 am to 2:30 pm
Museum of Discovery – Cooper Street 12:30 pm
International Academy of Dance – Cooper Street 1:15 pm
All About Theater – Cooper Street 2:00 pm
Kirby School – Cooper Street 2:45 pm
Jewel Box – Abbott Square Stage 3:00 to 4:00 pm
For more information about Kids Day you can go to downtownsantacruz.com/do/kids-day-3
