Pescadero Arts & Fun Festival

In the days before the 2026 festival, the organizers posted a short bulletin: the hay had arrived. By Saturday morning, August 15, the I.D.E.S. grounds at 22 Stage Road held craft stalls and a stage, along with sunflowers donated by Fifth Crow Farm. The South Coast Artists’ Alliance had hung its annual show in the Grand Hall. This was the 34th Pescadero Arts & Fun Festival, known locally as PAFF. It ran two days, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with free admission and free parking. Pets are not allowed on the grounds.

The grounds lie about two miles in from Highway 1 on Pescadero Road, a quarter mile south of its intersection with Stage Road. The town is about 16 miles south of Half Moon Bay and 35 miles north of Santa Cruz, in San Mateo County. The festival’s Instagram account goes by the name Paffy the Dancing Cow, and cows run through its posts under the tag #GetHippieOn.

Vendors are juried. The rules require that wares be made by the seller or the seller’s own group, and the application says that reselling manufactured or imported goods “conflicts with our mission.” Signs advertising bargains or slashed prices are not permitted.

Tamales near the stage

Music starts at 11:15 each morning. On Saturday in 2026, Tod Page opened, followed by Postman Jack & the Special Deliveries, the Mark Reid Band at 1:00, This Way Up, Three on the Tree, and Skalonda at 5:00. Sunday brought Tallulah Alexander, Squirrels of Wisdom, Mariachi San Francisco at 1:20, DB Walker, and the Gary Gates Band to close at 5:00. That Sunday bill matched 2025 act for act and slot for slot. The 2025 Saturday had Paisley Cobb, Lithoose, Pathetic Honey, and Bundy Browne and La Hondettes, alongside Three on the Tree and This Way Up.

At 2:40 on Sunday the stage goes to the SCCS Fashion Show, which the festival bills as its “only in Pescadero” Fashion Extravaganza. It is a comedy spectacle coordinated by South Coast Children’s Services, with outfits drawn from the SCCS Thrift Shop. “Come cheer on these amazing young stars as they strut their stuff!” the festival posted as the 2026 show was about to begin. The money it raises goes to community youth programs.

Food comes from the vendors, except for the tamales sold near the stage. Those are made by hand by parents and teachers of the La Honda-Pescadero Unified School District, and the festival calls them “a taste of the community.” A raffle of donated prizes runs through both days. Outside alcohol is not allowed, and no one may sleep or camp on the grounds.

Other events bracket the weekend. On the Friday evening before, the South Coast Artists’ Alliance holds a gala reception for its show. On Saturday morning, Puente, the South Coast Community Resource Center, holds its annual fun run to raise money for the San Mateo coastal community. On Sunday the festivities run late, by the organizers’ account, and guests “tend to linger and mingle” after the booths close at six.

Coastside artists and a teen center

A group of Coastside artists founded the festival in 1991. They wanted an outlet for local talent, and they wanted to raise money to open a teen center in town. In the festival’s own words, that goal “proved a bit more ambitious than our founders originally planned,” though the festival itself was a success. The setting has not changed since that first year. The Pescadero I.D.E.S. Society, a nonprofit, has hosted the event on its grounds since 1991, and the South Coast Artists’ Alliance has shown in the Grand Hall alongside it from the start.

Over the years the festival took up the cause of local youth more broadly. It now gives grants to programs in the schools and scholarships to local graduates, and its Instagram profile counts “30 years of supporting local youth.” In 2017 it partnered with Heirs to Our Oceans, a network of young people working on the ocean and water crisis, to make the festival greener. The festival notes that the Heirs have no active chapter in Pescadero, but it says it means to keep reducing its waste.

Five volunteers

The festival is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit under the umbrella of the Pescadero Community Foundation. It is run by an unpaid committee whose roster was the same in 2024 and 2026:

• Alicia B, president and vendor coordinator
• Tony B, entertainment coordinator
• Veronica S, advertising coordinator and website manager
• Trisha B, treasurer
• Jim J, listed as “Wearer of Many Hats”

The same volunteers coordinate the Pescadero town tree lighting in December. In 2025 it was set for Saturday, December 6, with Santa due around 7 p.m.

The 2026 festival ended on the evening of Sunday, August 16, with a post from the organizers: “We laughed. We danced. We shopped. We ate.” It closed, “See you at the 35th!”