This year’s Ebb & Flow festival kicked off on Friday June 2 and continued into through the following day—celebrating the San Lorenzo River and the Santa Cruz Riverwalk with local artwork, live music, food, festivities, and family fun. Ebb & Flow is the result of creative collaborations between local artists, the Coastal Watershed Council, City Arts, the Arts Commission, Public Works and Parks departments, and many generous sponsors. To see an entire slide show of photos, click here.

The festival began Friday night on Cooper Street in collaboration with the First Friday activities taking place at the MAH. Here, people of all ages gathered to enjoy live music and dance performances, snack on food from food trucks and vendors, and help make crafts and floats that would be featured in Saturday’s parade. Once the sun set on Friday night, the real excitement began as the crowds flocked to the river for a nighttime walk, led by a New Orleans-style jazz band. Here, they saw various sculpture installations along the river illuminated, and got to experience LED-lit aerial dancers suspended from the Soquel Bridge. The night walk was just the beginning of activities along the San Lorenzo, which continued well into the next day.

Elijah Pfotenhauer hosts a fish scale activity Friday night:

Aerial dancers performed off the Soquel Bridge - Jeannette Bent and friends:

Saturday started off with the Ebb & Flow Kinetic Art parade, where people of all ages walked from the Kaiser Permanente arena, up to the river path, and all the way to the Arts Tannery. From elementary school students and their friends, to nurses from the Sutter Health Center, to Mayor Cynthia Chase decked out in glittering goldfish gear, the parade was a place where creativity ruled. Floats of all sizes and shapes competed for prizes. The categories ranged from “Best Spawn,” to “Best in Show,” which went to the deserving ‘Swallow’ group, whose iridescent mosaic-style mobile decorations on their bikes were truly show stopping.

Kathleen explained the vision for her piece as she received kudos and flowers:

“What is it like under the waters of the San Lorenzo? We invite you to come contemplate the life of the River from a fish eye view. Imagine yourself sitting on a mosaic covered cement fish egg in one of three circles of fish eggs. All around you are clumps of reed-like plants. On the wall of the shed is a lively colorful mural of huge salmon and other smaller fish that Eliljah painted. Above you are bright blue strips of metal, the ripples of blue water running from the hills behind you towards the river. Floating downstream on the water canopy above you are large aluminum photo-engraved panels of artwork... it looks like some artists dropped their portfolios! You move around, looking up, to get a good look at each one; appreciating the shade they provide on this hot June day. You see a musical score, a poem about water bugs, drawings of the river bank, paintings of water birds and fish, and leaves, and trees, and sunsets! Up there at the water line parked against the painted bank of the river on the shed is the long lost red canoe, complete with its' "I <3 the Tannery" bumper sticker. You can't wait to come back at night to see how the artists interpreted starlight and moonlight on the water, you've heard it is a magical experience to see it under twinkling blue and white lights.” – Kathleen Crocetti

Team downstream, led by artist, teacher, and activist Kathleen Crocetti, include Geoffrey Nelson, Linda Cover, Margaret Niven, Elijah Pfontenhauer, and Maha Jumaie Taitano, all of whom are Tannery residents. Pictured here from left to right: Geoffre, Maha, Kathleen and Elijah:

Ebb & Flow was an even for the community to gather around the beautiful natural landscape of Santa Cruz. It provided education about the river and its ecological importance and as our source of drinking water, but perhaps most important is that this festival demonstrated how public art can impact a community, and bring new life to an area that many people may have neglected in the past. It was truly an amazing way to connect the San Lorenzo River and all that it has to offer to the Santa Cruz community.