Larkspur's Rose Bowl Dance is back, and Molly Wuthrich has spent months making sure of it.

Wuthrich, the event chair for the Larkspur Community Foundation's signature fundraiser, is organizing the dance on Saturday, Sept. 19, at the historic Escalle Winery on Magnolia Avenue. Doors open at 7 p.m., and tickets are $195 per person, according to the city manager's Aug. 28 update.

The event revives a tradition that dates to 1912, when Larkspur's volunteer firefighters held dances beneath redwoods on Cane Street to pay for engines, hydrants and alarm systems. Attendance peaked at 4,000 in the 1930s, with crowds arriving from San Francisco and across the Bay Area, according to Marin Buzz. The weekly summer dances ended in 1963 when the land was sold.

The Larkspur Community Foundation has revived the event for occasional one-night celebrations, most recently in 2024. Wuthrich helped lead that effort, too.

"Larkspur likes a good party!" Wuthrich said in a Sept. 1 Q&A on the foundation's website. "Everyone seemed super pleased that we were continuing the Rose Bowl Dance."

Wuthrich moved to Larkspur in 2003 with her husband and two children, then ages 2 and 4. She lives in what she calls the "Corte Madera part" of Larkspur and is an avid cyclist.

Before joining the foundation's board, she ran auction fundraising parties for the SPARK Foundation in 2006 and 2007, hosting more than 600 guests each year under a tent in the Nordstrom parking lot. She later served as SPARK's president for two years.

LCF founding member Helen Heitkamp recruited Wuthrich to the foundation after Wuthrich finished a stint as treasurer for her children's school parent board.

This year's dance will be held in the red Limerick Inn building at Escalle, a 29-acre property owned by Mary Tiscornia at the eastern base of King Mountain. Tiscornia has hosted multiple fundraisers there over the years, including several Rose Bowl revivals.

The band Tainted Love will perform, and Tavola Rustica will handle the food.

Proceeds will support foundation projects, including Arch Street Landing, a proposed native garden and public gathering space on a city-owned lot on Magnolia Avenue. The project carries a $250,000 price tag.

The foundation has committed $30,000, and local residents have donated an additional $35,000, according to the foundation's project page. The Larkspur City Council voted in January to move the proposal forward.

Event planner Ashley Hurd of Eventful Events, who worked on the 2024 dance, is back for this year's event. Complimentary trolley service will run to the venue. Parking will not be available at Escalle.