Best 9: Top events for the week ahead in Santa Cruz County arts & entertainment, May 29-June 5

Here they are, nine necessary know-abouts for the week ahead. It’s the Welcome-to-June B9:

➤ It’s a big weekend, maybe the biggest of the year, for the San Lorenzo Valley, thanks to the annual Redwood Mountain Faire. Despite its failure in standard American spelling, the Faire has been a beloved event going back decades, and this year, it’s again flexing its muscles as a big, bona fide music festival in the redwoods. Roaring Camp in Felton is setting up three stages for live music over the course of two days, featuring more than two dozen bands and acts, including such well-known names locally as Laurie Lewis, Keith Greeninger, Sharon Allen and Jesse Daniel, the latter proudly known as the “Son of the San Lorenzo.” All that, plus the finest in local food and drink, arts & crafts and the general sweet vibes and fabulousness of Roaring Camp in late spring. Tickets are $53 for adults per day, $20 less if you’re over 65 or under 18. In Santa Cruz County, the Faire has always served another purpose — as the unofficial beginning of the Santa Cruz Summer. 

➤ If you’re looking for low energy, minimalism and/or understatement in your weekend’s entertainment, we suggest you steer clear of “Queerlantis 2025.” The big blow-the-doors-off event of Santa Cruz Pride will, on Saturday night, transform the Rio Theatre with a demonstration on just how big and powerful drag shows can get. Hosted by Rogue Roulette and featuring the talents of such local drag stars as Khloe Quarterpounder, Xinistra, Nia Politan and many others. The performances are expected to be trés fab, but just imagine the fashion! The mind reels.

➤ Vegan, plant-based, cruelty-free, there are so many ways to describe a life devoted to not eating fellow animals. For one day, the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds — a venue that has certainly sold its share of meat products — will be a haven for veg-friendly cooks and eaters alike, with all kinds of treats and free food samplings and more than 100 exhibitors, along with beer, wine, live music and speakers on health and nutrition. No spare ribs, however. It’s Santa Cruz VegFest, and it happens Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Come curious and come hungry. 

➤ Native New Yorker Emily King has been recording lithe and sophisticated R&B-flavored pop music for close to 20 years and is a favorite for many who like to deep-dive into the singer-songwriter genre. She’s been regularly snagging Grammy noms since her debut in 2007. Now on the edge of 40, the street-hip songwriter has taken a more tender turn with her most recent music. She’s a real jewel worth discovering. See her live at Moe’s Alley on Sunday. 

➤ Wouldn’t be much of a host if I failed to hype my own event, now would I? It’s time for the return of Lookout’s monthly Trivia Night, in which I lead a rollicking round of trivia, with a big emphasis on fun and curiosity with no pressure or super-competitive vibes. It’s a free event in the beautiful twilight at Abbott Square. Get a cocktail and learn what little scraps of accumulated info you can still scrape out of your old noggin. That’s the first Wednesday of every month through the rest of the summer. Fun prizes, bragging rights, and you’ll learn something — maybe not something useful, but still. 

➤ If you’re one of those people to whom a little mariachi music is too much mariachi music, well, you’re just wrong. Everyone’s got their blind spots. Mariachi is big and bold and passionate, and it continues to have a hold on musicians and audiences alike. On Saturday, the Monterey Bay Mariachi Festival gathers young mariachis from Santa Cruz and Monterey counties in one big mariachi-thon, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Cabrillo College’s Samper Recital Hall. 

➤ Monty Alexander was born in Jamaica, but for a big, bold blast of Americana, it’s hard to beat the jazz pianist’s 2024 album “D-Day,” which marked the 80th anniversary of that heroic history-bending event with spirited interpretations of wartime standards and some originals that bore tribute to the triumph and tragedy of the Normandy landings. Alexander, who incidentally was born on D-Day, lands at the Kuumbwa on Monday.

➤ If you don’t already live there, Watsonville is one of those places you think is familiar, but is still capable of surprising you. On Saturday, the Watsonville Wine, Beer and Art Walk will give you an opportunity to discover some things about Watsy that you might not know or have forgotten. A wide array of breweries, winemakers and restaurants are all participating in a pub crawl you’ll be certain to remember fondly. 

➤ Intriguing, sure to be stimulating event next week at the MAH: “Amending Worlds” is a panel discussion about the genre of “speculative fiction,” hosted by UC Santa Cruz’s Humanities Institute. UCSC film prof Carla Freccero will moderate a panel of experts in the genre, to talk about its triumphs and its promise, with installations, visual art, film and video, and even computer games. It all happens next Thursday, June 5.