April 2020 events calendar for Los Angeles
Plan your month with our April 2020 events calendar of the best activities, including free things to do, festivals and our favorite concerts
T.S. Eliot may have believed April is the cruelest month, but Angelenos have plenty of reasons to sing its praises: Concerts and festivals in L.A. kick into high gear this month as the weather warms up. A beer fest at L.A. Center Studios, cycling the city streets and our favorite music festival in the desert all have a place in our April events calendar, much-needed rain showers be damned.
RECOMMENDED: Full events calendar for 2019 and 2020
“Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop”
Celebrate the photographers responsible for helping to define hip-hop’s visual identity with this display of unedited contact sheets for photo shoots with the likes of the Notorious B.I.G., Tupac, Salt-N-Pepa, Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West and more.
See more events in our full calendar
Cub Scout
Given that Silver Lake is where the bears like to play, is it any wonder that the cubs have taken such a shine to the neighborhood as well? Cub Scout, presented by popular nightlife personalities DJ Chris Bowen and DJ Victor Rodriguez, is a monthly den of sexy fun with cheap drinks and a furry crowd on the first Friday of every month. But don’t be misled: This cruisy, no-frills party attracts boys from all parts of town and every stripe of the rainbow. Bears, cubs, otters, wolves and pups are all welcome and sure to find something—or someone—to cozy up to at this all out man-fest.
Celine Dion
After eight years in Las Vegas, Celine Dion is hitting the road for her first U.S. tour in over a decade, including a stop at the Staples Center. If an intimate reveal in L.A. is anything to go by, boy are you in for a show, one filled with that legendary set of pipes, wonderfully all-over-the-place banter, new songs from her forthcoming album Courage and familiar favorites—you better believe you’ll hear “My Heart Will Go On.”
Stagecoach Festival
Strap on your cowboy hat and make the pilgrimage to country music’s biggest jamboree, taking up residence at Coachella’s digs, the Empire Polo Club. Stagecoach is coming back for a three-day fest; expect the usual mix of contemporary and classic country.
“Julie Mehretu”
This co-presentation with New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art takes a mid-career look at the Ethiopian-American’s striking large-scale abstractions, with 30 paintings and 32 works on paper. The first-ever retrospective of the artist spans two decades of pieces that examine geopolitics and displacement through abstraction, architecture, landscape, movement and figuration.
“Star Trek: Exploring New Worlds”
Space: the final frontier. This is the voyage of a traveling pop culture exhibition. Its latest mission: to stop by L.A.’s Skirball Cultural center. “Star Trek: Exploring New Worlds” is set to land at the Skirball in 2020 with a visual examination of the sci-fi franchise’s impact on culture, art and technology, as well as its futuristic vision of inclusiveness. Originally organized by the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP), Seattle, “Exploring New Worlds” will feature over 100 artifacts, set pieces and props from the television series, spin-offs and films. Highlights include the Enterprise’s navigation console from the original series; Kirk, Spock, Uhura and McCoy costumes; and the six-foot U.S.S. Enterprise filming model from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Though we don’t know many other details about the exhibition (including pricing and L.A.-specific additions), we expect to hear more in early 2020.
“Natural History of Horror”
It’s alive. It’s alive! The Natural History Museum is taking a look at the science and history that inspired some of film’s most iconic, hideous creatures. “Natural History of Horror” will tackle scientific discoveries, like early experiments in animal electricity and the excavation of King Tut’s tomb, and explore how they influenced old-school monster movies, like The Mummy and Frankenstein. The exhibition will feature 17 objects from the museum’s collection and four early Universal monster movies (Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy and Creature from the Black Lagoon). Expect a mix of rare movie props and film footage donated by Universal alongside hands-on interactives and specimens from the NHM collections.
Celine Dion
After eight years in Las Vegas, Celine Dion is hitting the road for her first U.S. tour in over a decade, including a stop at the Staples Center. If an intimate reveal in L.A. is anything to go by, boy are you in for a show, one filled with that legendary set of pipes, wonderfully all-over-the-place banter, new songs from her forthcoming album Courage and familiar favorites—you better believe you’ll hear “My Heart Will Go On.”
Stagecoach Festival
Strap on your cowboy hat and make the pilgrimage to country music’s biggest jamboree, taking up residence at Coachella’s digs, the Empire Polo Club. Stagecoach is coming back for a three-day fest; expect the usual mix of contemporary and classic country.