Get us in your inbox

Search
Hollywood Bowl
Photograph: Courtesy Adam Latham

August 2024 events calendar for Los Angeles

Plan your month with our August 2024 events calendar of the best activities, including free things to do, movie screenings and more

Michael Juliano
Edited by
Michael Juliano
Advertising

August may signal summer’s home stretch, but that doesn’t mean the seasonal vibes need to end. Grab an ice cream cone, splash around in a swimming hole or dine on a rooftop—and make sure to follow our August events calendar for the best activities in L.A. this month.

RECOMMENDED: Full events calendar for 2024

The best events in L.A. this August

  • Things to do
  • Markets and fairs
  • price 0 of 4
  • Downtown Arts District

Every Sunday you can find dozens of food vendors at this market at ROW DTLA, with a mix of much-loved pop-ups and future foodie stars. Look out for this year’s new vendors, including Basket Taco Co, Battambong Barbecue and Taste of the Pacific.

  • Movie theaters
  • Outdoor
  • price 2 of 4
  • Beverly Hills

For dinner and a movie, all in one, just follow the food trucks. During the spring, summer and fall, Street Food Cinema throws together a series of outdoor parties—usually alfresco, sometimes in a drive-in format—that include screenings of some of our favorite movies, paired with an assortment of gourmet food trucks and even a live music performance from a cool local band. The screenings are held in venues across L.A. and alternate from week to week, so make sure to check the schedule. Some of the outdoor venues are dog-friendly, allowing you to bring your four-legged cinema lover along. See more of this season’s outdoor movie screenings in L.A.

Advertising
  • Things to do
  • price 1 of 4
  • USC/Exposition Park

Nature lovers rejoice! Spend a day at the Natural History Museum’s Butterfly Pavilion, which will open from March 17 through August 25 with up to 30 butterfly and moth species and an assortment of California plants. The seasonal outdoor exhibit allows for adults and children alike to witness nature up close—we’re talking having bufferlies take flight and land on your arms or shoulders. Prime time for these unique butterfly flight experiences are between 10 and 11am each morning.

Advertising
  • Art
  • Film and video
  • Miracle Mile

See how the Hairspray and Pink Flamingos writer and director’s delightfully filthy style has redefined the possibilities of independent cinema—as well as what exactly goes into making an indie movie—during this career-spanning exhibition at the Academy Museum. “John Waters: The Pope of Trash” includes costumes, props, photos, handwritten scripts, correspondence and memos, scrapbooks and more. Highlights include an original Pink Flamingos script and Debbie Harry’s exploding wig and Ricki Lake’s roach dress from Hairspray. Look out for related screenings as well as an adjoining installation on the American avant-garde and New Queer Cinema.

  • Things to do
  • price 0 of 4

The term CicLAvia stems from a similar Spanish word for “bike way,” and in L.A. it’s become a shorthand for the temporary, festival-like closing of L.A.’s streets. The event (inspired by the first Ciclovías in Bogotá, Colombia) welcomes bikes, tricycles, skateboards, strollers and basically anything else without an engine to ride a rotating cast of car-free routes. You’ll inevitably always find a route each year around Downtown, but past events have taken it anywhere from the harbor to the San Gabriel Valley. Expect music, street performances and food trucks, as well as general whimsy and shenanigans along the way. Shop owners and restaurants along the CicLAvia route also tend to host specials. It goes without saying that you should bike or take the Metro to your desired spot along the route.

Advertising
  • Music
  • price 3 of 4
  • Downtown

Treat your ears to a vibrant concert on a spring or summer night this year, by attending MUSE/IQUE’s annual program. This monthly series of performances, held venues (largely outdoors) across L.A., features a mix of performances inspired by landmark albums and public figures, including tributes to Ed Sullivan, Bob Dylan, Abraham Lincoln, Oklahoma! and more. In order to attend, you’ll need to become a MUSE/IQUE member; you could make a $75 donation for a single event, but if you’re interested in more than just one, it’s cheaper per event to become a full-fludged member.

  • Things to do
  • price 3 of 4
  • Anaheim

Every two years, Disnerds come together at the Anaheim Convention Center to celebrate all things Disney and see what sort of magic the company has been working on. Show floor highlights include a peek inside the Disney Archives and the latest ride designs and inventions from Walt Disney Imagineering. If you’re not afraid to stand in line, the weekend’s keynotes include the Legends induction ceremony and a look at upcoming releases from Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and both animated and live action Disney movies, as well as the latest from the Disney theme parks.

Advertising
  • Things to do
  • Exhibitions
  • price 2 of 4
  • Westside

Let the wild rumpus start at this celebration of beloved children’s author and illustrator Maurice Sendak. The Skirball Cultural Center will be displaying more than 150 sketches, storyboards and paintings from the Where the Wild Things Are creator. Titled “Wild Things Are Happening: The Art of Maurice Sendak,” the exhibition debuted at the Columbus Museum of Art in 2022 and will sail off (metaphorically speaking) to visit L.A. from April 18 through September 1, 2024. Admission costs $18 for adults, with discounts for students, seniors and children; it’s completely free to visit on Thursdays. In addition to his own books, In the Night Kitchen and Outside Over There among them, the exhibition will spotlight art that Sendak created for a handful of other authors, including Else Holmelund Minarik’s Little Bear, as well designs for Mozart operas and books. The show will also focus on his personal and family life, with portraits he shot, toys he designed and insight into his life as a child of Jewish immigrants and a lover of Romantic music and art.

  • Music
  • Music venues
  • price 3 of 4
  • Inglewood

EDM juggernaut HARD Summer has hopped around Southern California in recent years, and last year returned to L.A. proper—and for 2024 now 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 Disclosure, FISHER + Chris Lake: Under Construction, Nelly Furtado, REZZMAU5, Major Lazer, Jamie xx, Subtronics, Zeds Dead and more.

Recommended
    You may also like
    You may also like
    Advertising