Summer concerts in L.A., including free shows

This laid-back, Gen X-ish music fest will once again take over the Redondo Beach coastline for three days in May. Lenny Kravitz, Sublime, Alanis Moriessette, Train, Cake, Pretenders, O.A.R., Mt. Joy and Jackson Browne top this year’s lineup.

This chill fest—quite literally compared to the scorching desert outings—brings a few dozen acts to San Luis Obispo. This year’s lineup includes Jungle, Wallows, Goth Babe, Odd Mob, Kream and Briston Maroney at Dairy Creek Golf Course.

The aughts indie nostalgia shows no signs of stopping, so it’s no surprise that Just Like Heaven—a music fest that’s featured basically every beloved 2000s indie band—is coming back for its fifth edition. The fest will take over the golf course next to the Rose Bowl with a lineup that’s largely pulled from your old iPod: Vampire Weekend, a reunited Rilo Kiley, Empire of the Sun, Bloc Party and TV on the Radio top the lineup, with additional sets from Slowdive, the Drums, Courtney Barnett, Panda Bear and more.

Make your way to the desert for the Joshua Tree Music Festival, a gathering of like-minded indie musicians who will be rocking out to a dance-world-electro-funk’n groove. The biannual festival is a four-day party with over 30 bands in a unique lineup of artists who aren’t necessarily household names. There’s free water to all patrons, minimal service charges on tickets and yoga classes aplenty.

Staged along the convention center side of San Diego’s downtown waterfront, the appropriately named Wonderfront includes sets from Peggy Gou, Daniel Caesar, Anderson .Paak, Foster the People, Khruangbin, Jason Mraz, Gary Clark Jr. and more. You’ll find Wonderfront from May 16 to 18 at Embarcadero Marina Park North, Seaport Village and Ruocco Park.

On the outskirts of town at the Motor Speedway, Electric Daisy Carnival is pure, condensed Vegas. There is a VIP Ferris wheel. Helicopters shuttle in high rollers. The 135,000-strong crowd is soaked in ecstasy and spray tan. Every millionaire DJ that plays the laser-riddled nightclubs on the Strip is here. EDC introduced EDM as a Day-Glo spectacle for the masses in America, and its lineups in recent years have certainly lived up to the hype (Tiësto, REZZ, Alison Wonderland, Kaskade and many more perform this year). Once you let the neon and bass wash over you, it is the time of your life.

Cake on the eyeliner, cry it off and then dance away the tears at the return of this 1980s-to-aughts goth, new wave and punk fest with New Order, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, the Go-Go’s, Devo, OMD, Death Cult, Garbage and more. The one-day-only event features dozens of alt obsessions on the golf course next to the Rose Bowl, where it once again returns this May.

After years on the Central Coast, the annual event has more recently made a move significantly closer to L.A., at Bakersfield’s Buena Vista Aquatic Recreational Area. Sure, it’s still a bit of a trek, but where else can you find a sustainable, vegetarian festival dedicated to equal parts music, food, art, yoga and wellness? Expect to do some serious soul-searching during this five-day retreat, all while immersing yourself in everything from a speaker series to an old timey trading post. John Summit, Khruangbin, Jamie xx, Four Tet and Subtronics top the 2025 lineup.

After a couple of years in New York, pan-Asian music and media collective 88rising’s music fest returns to the grounds outside the Rose Bowl. The 2025 edition’s headliners include G-Dragon, 2NE1, Dean, DPR IAN, Rich Brian, Porter Robinson and Higher Brothers.

This weekend-long concert will once again return to West Hollywood Park as part of WeHo Pride. This year’s lineup is still to come, but Kylie Minogue, Janelle Monáe and Diplo topped the 2024 outing. If the ticket prices have you down, don’t worry: Friday night’s programming is usually free with an RSVP.

Weed—the Cali vibes are weed. At least that’s the sense we get from this Long Beach festival. The 2025 lineup includes Kid Cudi, Cypress Hill, Ludacris, Steel Pulse, Collie Buddz, Dirty Heads, Iration, Rebelution, Stick Figure and Slightly Stoopid, among dozens of others.

Though it’s a seated, single-stage concert, we think the deep lineup and alfresco, BYO setting of this show merit its inclusion here. After last year’s debut edition, the Roots return to the Hollywood Bowl for this mid-‘90s hip-hop fest, which includes sets from Lil’ Kim, Method Man and Redman, DJ Quik and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony.

House music hits the Queen Mary waterfront during this two-day fest. This year’s event, which features two main stages, has yet to announce its lineup, but last year included the likes of Kaskade, MK back-to-back with Green Velvet, Cloonee and more.

EDM juggernaut HARD Summer hopped around Southern California for a while, but now it’s settled back in town—and for 2025 again heads to the grounds of Hollywood Park, next to SoFi Stadium. No matter the location, its dedication to bringing the biggest names in the hip-hop and electronic scene has stayed the course. This year’s lineup includes Dom Dolla, Feid, Gesaffelstein, Kaytranada, Sean Paul, Juvenile & the 400 Degreez Band, Four Tet, Floating Points, Sara Landry and Nico Moreno.

Say goodbye to dusty thoroughfares and violent porta-potties: Splash House takes the music festival concept off of sweltering desert land and places it poolside. Movers and shakers at this multi-location getdown are shuttled between the Saguaro, the Margaritaville and the Renaissance (with after-hours programming at the Palm Springs Air Museum) to lap up big-name dance acts and DJ sets. With the added comforts of AC rooms and critically acclaimed restaurant fare just steps away from the party scenes, the experience will make you question whether to bother with more punishing locales come next year’s festival season.

Eddie Vedder’s Ohana Festival once again lands at Doheny State Beach in Dana Point—and though there’s no lineup yet, you can bet that the Pearl Jam frontman will probably be on it. This year’s edition runs from September 26 to 28.

The fest’s name comes from the Hawaiian concept of family, and as such the beachfront festival will give back to its own community by donating a portion of proceeds to the San Onofre Parks Foundation and the Doheny State Beach Foundation, among others.

Panic! at the Disco and Blink-182 top the now-annual Las Vegas festival that features just about every emo-pop act from the early 2000s. Seriously, we’re not kidding: Weezer, Avril Lavigne, the Offspring, All Time Low, the Used, Knocked Loose, the Gaslight Anthem, Bad Religion, Yellowcard and more are all set to take over the Las Vegas Festival Grounds on October 18 and 19, 2025, with a special focus on each band’s most beloved album.