If you live in Seabridge, you already know the rhythm: Sunday means the farmers market, and Seabridge Marketplace covers the rest. That's the calendar most residents run on. It's not the whole calendar, and this fall makes that obvious in a way it hasn't in years.
Between mid-September and mid-December 2026, the harbor right outside your gate is hosting an event that's turning 60 years old and two events that have never happened before. A tradition old enough to have outlived most of the homes in Coral Island is happening in the same seven-week stretch as a costumed kayak paddle that debuted for the first time this year. That's not a coincidence of scheduling. It's what a harbor looks like when it's mature enough to have deep traditions and still confident enough to keep inventing new ones.
Here's what's actually on the calendar, and why the order it happens in matters more than you'd think.
Chowderfest Turns Seven, and the Ticket Math Rewards Planning Ahead
The Channel Islands Maritime Museum's Chowderfest happens Saturday, September 19, from noon to 4pm, right on the museum grounds at Bluefin Circle. This is the 7th annual running of an event that started in 2019, which means it's now old enough to have a track record rather than just a launch buzz. Local restaurants bring their chowder, you vote on a favorite, and a portion of every ticket goes to the nonprofit museum's preservation work.
The detail worth knowing before you plan your Saturday: advance tickets run $45 and include entry starting at noon. Buy at the gate instead, and it's $55 with entry pushed back to 1pm. That's a $10 premium and a lost hour, just for skipping the advance purchase. If you're the kind of household that decides on a Tuesday whether Saturday is a chowder day, this is the event that punishes that habit.
Two Weekends Later, a 35-Year-Old Car Show Rolls In
Eight days after Chowderfest, on Sunday, September 27, the harbor hosts the 35th Annual British Car Club Show. This isn't a pop-up. Thirty-five consecutive years means this show predates most of the newer construction around the marina, and it draws the kind of collector crowd that treats Channel Islands Harbor as a fixture on the regional car show circuit, not a one-off stop.
Two weeks after that, on Sunday, October 11, the Tri-County Mustang Club takes over with Ponies by the Sea. Between the two shows, you've got roughly three weekends in a row where the harbor's waterfront parking areas fill with polished chrome instead of the usual boat trailers. If you're not a car person, it's still worth knowing the traffic pattern shifts on those specific Sundays.
The Part That Didn't Exist Last Fall
This is the detail that actually changes how you should think about Seabridge's social calendar. On Saturday, October 24, the harbor is running its first-ever Pumpkin Paddle: kayakers and paddleboarders dressing in costume and taking to the water at 10am. Six weeks later, on Sunday, December 6, the harbor repeats the format for the holidays with an inaugural Reindeer Paddle at 11am.
Neither of these events has a history to point to. There's no "12th annual" attached to either one. That matters because it tells you something about the direction the harbor's programming is heading: toward participatory, on-the-water events rather than just spectator festivals. If you own a kayak or a paddleboard and have never used it for anything more organized than a quiet Tuesday morning paddle, this fall is the first time the harbor has built an actual costumed event around doing exactly that.
The Parade That's Older Than Most of the Neighborhood
Then there's the anchor event. On Saturday, December 12, the harbor hosts its 60th Annual Parade of Lights, a boat parade that runs through the county side of the harbor, south of Channel Islands Boulevard, with decorated boats and crowds watching from the docks and walkways. Sixty years means this parade started before Seabridge existed as a developed community at all. It's a tradition the neighborhood grew up around, not one it created.
For residents with private dock access, this is the one event on the list where you're not just a spectator. Boat owners are encouraged to decorate and participate directly in the parade, which means the difference between watching from your own dock and being part of the show that year is basically a string of lights and an afternoon of effort.
Here's the full lineup in order:
Event | Date | What Makes It Notable |
|---|---|---|
7th Annual Chowderfest | Sat, Sept 19 | Advance tickets ($45) beat gate price ($55) by $10 and an hour of entry time |
35th Annual British Car Club Show | Sun, Sept 27 | Longest-running of the fall car shows |
Ponies by the Sea (Tri-County Mustang Club) | Sun, Oct 11 | Second car show in three weeks |
Pumpkin Paddle (inaugural) | Sat, Oct 24 | First-ever costumed kayak/paddleboard event at the harbor |
Reindeer Paddle (inaugural) | Sun, Dec 6 | Second new paddle event, holiday format |
60th Annual Parade of Lights | Sat, Dec 12 | Boat owners can register to decorate and participate directly |
Where to Eat Before or After Any of This
Every one of these events sits within walking distance of Seabridge Marketplace, which means you don't need to plan dinner reservations three towns over. Yolanda's Mexican Cafe is the family-run spot locals treat as their default, especially for Sunday brunch, which lines up conveniently with the Sunday-dated events on this list. Anaba Sushi handles the waterfront dinner crowd well, particularly if you want a table with an actual view of the water rather than a parking lot. And The Raven leans into its Irish-American tavern identity with live music and a brunch menu built around its hand pies, which makes it a reasonable stop before a car show that starts mid-morning.
None of this requires driving off the peninsula. That's arguably the more useful takeaway than any single event date: the density of things happening between now and mid-December is high enough that you could fill six separate weekends without leaving a two-mile radius of your own dock.
If you're only marking one date on this list, make it September 19. Chowderfest sells out most years, and the ticket price gap alone is reason enough to buy ahead instead of deciding that morning over coffee.
What This Actually Tells You About the Neighborhood
The easy assumption about Seabridge is that its social life happens behind the gate, on the tennis courts or around the resort-style pool. The harbor's own fall calendar argues against that. The events that actually define a Seabridge fall this year, a 60-year parade tradition and two events that are debuting for the first time, both happen on public water and public docks, open to anyone who shows up.
That's worth sitting with if you've lived here a while and never made it to one of these. The neighborhood isn't short on things to do. It's short on residents who've noticed that the calendar changes every year, sometimes by adding something that's never existed before.
If you want the short version to put on your own calendar: September 19 for chowder, the two Sundays after for cars, October 24 for the first Pumpkin Paddle the harbor has ever run, and December 12 for a parade that's been running since before most of Seabridge was built.
Homes by Billy tracks the neighborhood side of Ventura County's coastal communities as closely as the market side, because knowing what a place is actually like to live in matters just as much as knowing what a home is worth. If you've got questions about Seabridge, the harbor, or anything else along this stretch of coast, reach out to Homes by Billy. Call Me 🤙🏻
