March 21, 2023 – Collective Santa Cruz is launching its 2023 season with five monthly parties—starting April 8 with a dessert festival called Sweet Home Santa Cruz.
Organizers Jalen Horne and Kendall Denike hope their series of themed events will liven up post-Covid Santa Cruz and give people a reason to gather again.
“Themes make things intriguing for people and that’s the fun part for us, each month we get to go to the drawing board and create something new,” says Horne, whose day job is beverage manager at brunch hot spot Harbor Cafe.
The longtime friends—who met while attending Branciforte Middle School—started out selling tee-shirts last year and launched Collective Santa Cruz with a get together for micro food businesses and artisans in the Harbor Cafe parking lot.
Together they put on several events, including a county fair themed party, a canned food drive for Second Harvest Food Bank and a benefit for Housing Matters. Horne is operations director, organizing vendors and venues, while Denike is the creative director.
“We noticed a cultural shift happening as things got weird during Covid,” says Horne. “People got crafty and the whole pop up culture started to be what’s going on.”
“So we wanted to bring together all the small businesses and different components that make up Santa Cruz,” he adds. Later this month Collective Santa Cruz will be honored as Small Business of the Year at the NEXTies Awards.
The 2023 season of Collective Santa Cruz, which they call the Hometown Tour, will feature monthly events beginning in April.
Sweet Home Santa Cruz takes place at Humble Sea Brewing from noon to 5pm on April 8 and will feature more than a dozen local sweets vendors, including Pacific Cookie Company, Marini’s Candies, Marianne’s Ice Cream, Emozione, Ashby’s Confections and several home-based businesses.
The festival will also include two musical performances, a special beer, craft booths and featured artist Nick Vargas—a well-known tattoo artist and illustrator for local brands such as Cat & Cloud Coffee and The Brunch Shift.
While details of future events are being kept under wraps, tickets just went on sale for the April dessert festival. Admission is $20/adults and $10/children.
More at: collectivesantacruz.com
About the author
Deborah Luhrman is publisher and editor of Edible Monterey Bay. A lifelong journalist, she has reported from around the globe, but now prefers covering our flourishing local food scene and growing her own vegetables in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
