Slack key on the beach and a Mustang round up on 101

Weather. Banger of a weekend coming up. Thursday 75°, Friday 74°, Saturday 75°, Sunday 76°. Rain chance 5% or under all weekend. .

Surf. Small and summery. Get the latest from Surfline.

Tides. Skip the tide pools this weekend — the midday "lows" only drop to about 4.3 ft, so not much gets uncovered. Evening highs are big (7.0 ft at 7:20 PM Saturday, 7.3 ft at 7:57 PM Sunday), so set your chairs back a little at sunset.

Sunset. Saturday at 7:53 PM. Sunday at 7:52 PM. On Sunday, the Moonlight concert wraps at 5, so head up after and grab a California Burrito from Taco Stand then head back over and let the evening finish itself off with nature’s greatest show that plays nightly.

Farm Film & Music at Coastal Roots Farm — This is the July edition of Coastal Roots' five-part summer series, and the programming is thoughtful: gates at 6 with live music from Nathan and Jessie and community partners tabling, a panel at 7:30 moderated by True Allard with Shalena Critchlow of Tribal Sacred Waters and Amanda Subish of Red Earth Movement, then the film at 8:05 under the stars. Tending Nature: Indigenous Land Stewardship looks at how California tribal groups have shaped and cared for this land for a thousand years, and how that traditional knowledge is being paired with Western science on live environmental problems. Bring a picnic dinner and low-back chairs. 📍 Coastal Roots Farm, 441 Saxony Rd 💵 $12 advance / $18 at the door / $36 Farm Friend

Summer Nights: Surf Rock with The Surf Birdz at San Diego Botanic Garden. Five members who all sing, plus a flute, covering everything from the Beach Boys to Hendrix. Admission opens at 4, music 5:30–7:15, Garden stays open till 8. Free for members or with paid Garden admission — but SDBG says these sell fast, so register early.

Jazz Is Dead with Marcos Valle at the Belly Up, with DJ Ozbot9 and DJ Flying Disc. Bossa nova and Brazilian soul from a man who's been making it since the sixties. $35 adv / $40 day of, Reserved Loft $62.

Friday Sunset Sessions at Fox Point Farms, 5–8 PM. Live music, food, drink specials, farm at golden hour.

Vacancy (indie/alt rock) at 1st Street Bar, early set, with DJ Funkeeboss at 10.

San Dieguito Mustang Open Reunion, 4–7 PM — see Featured above. Free.

Sara Jade (pop rock) at 1st Street Bar, 7:30–9:30 PM, DJ Robi turns it into a dance floor at 10. No cover.

Cardiff Farmers Market, and Saturday Run Club at Necessity Coffee if you want to earn your breakfast.

Moonlight Beach Concerts: Slack Key ʻOhana, 1–5 PM — see Featured. Free. The headline event of the weekend.

Leucadia Farmers Market (remember that it’s at Oak Crest now!) and Sunday Night Jazz at Mr. Peabody's to close it out.

Slack Key ʻOhana at Moonlight Beach (Sunday, 1–5 PM, free) — music on the sand, room to run around, and nobody minds if the kids are kids. The easiest yes on this list.

Grom-O-Rama at Sun Bum (Saturday, 2–5 PM) — a fundraiser built around groms, thrown by everyone’s favorite sunscreen covered gorilla headquartered a block off Moonlight.

Cardiff Farmers Market (Saturday) — free, outdoors, and a low-stakes way to fill a morning.

Taste of Encinitas 2026 — Tuesday, August 25, 5:30–8:30 PM. Tickets are on sale now.

Two more Moonlight Beach Concerts — August 9 and August 23, free, both 1–5 PM on the sand. ZB Savoy brings modern Americana on the 9th; Sabrosas Latin Orchestra, San Diego's first all-female salsa band, closes out the series on the 23rd.

Sessions Surf Festival — September 12–19, a full week taking over Encinitas and the coastline. Seven days of surf films, live music, art, and community events. It opens Saturday the 12th with a stacked music lineup at Seaside Reef (Osees, Unwritten Law, Bully and more), followed by a free community surf contest at Seaside on the 13th. La Paloma becomes the hub September 17–19 for surf films and panel conversations, and the art exhibit — 10 artists — runs the full week on the 101. We'll go deeper as it gets closer.