For the past eight years, that mantle has been taken up by the Capitola Beach Festival, which has carried over many elements of the Begonia Festival for a lively multi-day extravaganza the last weekend of September. The Beach Festival returns Saturday and Sunday with new highlights, including a paddleboard contest and a drone show. The Begonia Festival came to an end in 2017 after longtime supplier Golden State Bulb Growers announced it was exiting the begonia business. However, the very next year, Begonia Festival organizers opted to continue the tradition of festive Capitola Septembers by continuing many of the successor festival’s staples in a new annual tradition called the Capitola Beach Festival. The Capitola Beach Festival is Saturday and Sunday at Capitola Beach, 141 Esplanade, Capitola.