Santa Cruz Comedy Festival returns for lucky 13th installment

SANTA CRUZ — Following a smaller, temporarily rebranded installment last year, the Santa Cruz Comedy Festival is back in full force Oct. 12-17 with 75 comics and eight venues producing an immeasurable amount of laughter. It also happens to be the 13th edition of the venerable local festival, which dates back to 2014 when a local comic who goes by the initials DNA hosted other comedians at Steamer Lane. It continued to expand over the years to other venues and even managed to get creative during the COVID cancellation year of 2020, where people could watch participating comics online but also park their cars at the former Saturn Cafe parking lot, listen to a radio frequency and honk their horns if they liked a joke. The growth culminated in the 2024 festival being its biggest year yet with more than 60 comedians performing at multiple venues throughout downtown Santa Cruz, ranging from performance venues like The Blue Lagoon and the Rio Theatre to unexpected places like Streetlight Reco