Four days of kelp on the coast: a seaweed parade, tide walks, an urchin cookout and films.
- When: A low-tide weekend; October in 2025 and 2026 (last held October 9, 2026)
- Where: Mendocino, Fort Bragg, Caspar and Van Damme, Mendocino coast, CA
Organized by North Coast KelpFest!. Details and tickets come from the organizer.
The bull kelp forest off this coast lost most of its canopy after 2014, and purple urchins moved in. KelpFest! celebrates the forest and the people bringing it back, with art, science, food and film from Fort Bragg to Van Damme. It’s timed to the low tides, it’s in its third year, and it’s run by a long list of local groups, from the Noyo Center and MendoParks to the Mendocino Art Center.
What happens
- Thursday warm-up: a beach wrack walk and a pizza party at Larry Spring Commons in Fort Bragg
- Friday: storytime at the library, town hall talks, a fish taco crawl kickoff downtown and a surf rock dance party
- Saturday: the Seaweed Spectacle Parade through Mendocino at 11:30, then an afternoon at the Mendocino Art Center with a gallery show and an aerial dance, a kelp recovery demo and the Second Saturday art walk
- Sunday: a community dive at Caspar Cove, a picnic and dock walk with the harbormaster at Noyo Harbor, talks on kelp restoration and red abalone farming, and an urchin low-tide walk and cookout at Van Damme
- Monday: a coastal trail walk and a short-film screening
Food and drink
Food runs all weekend: the fish taco crawl through downtown Fort Bragg on Friday evening, the post-parade gathering at the Art Center on Saturday, a picnic at Noyo Harbor on Sunday (bring lunch or buy it there), and on Sunday evening an urchin cookout on the beach at Van Damme, where purple urchins, the species eating the kelp, go on the grill.
Good to know
| 2026 | Friday–Monday, October 9–12, with warm-up events Thursday the 8th |
|---|---|
| Where | Spread out: Fort Bragg, Mendocino village, Caspar Cove and Van Damme Beach |
| Cost | Not posted on the schedule; check each event’s page |
| Kids | Yes: storytime for ages 0–6, a sand sculpture party at Caspar Beach and the parade |
| Started | 2024 |
| Official site | North Coast KelpFest! ↗ |
Staying for KelpFest weekend?
After a day on the beach and the bluffs, let us cook dinner in the house you’ve rented. We’ll build a menu around the coast that weekend: fish off the harbor, sea vegetables when they’re in, and whatever the farms are bringing in October. Tell us your date and we’ll talk it through.
More on the coast
- Mendocino Urchin Festival
- Harvest Mendocino
- Fungi Festival and Cultural Convergence
- All food and wine events
Details from North Coast KelpFest! schedule, About KelpFest!, Mendo Voice, October 2025. Checked September 24, 2026. Prices are for the year shown; check the official site before you go.
Coming for the weekend? We cook dinner in the house you’ve rented. Check your date, or see sample menus.