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Free events in LA: Beverly Hills Art Show
Free events in LA: Beverly Hills Art Show

Free events in LA: The best free things to do in the city

Free events in LA are not hard to come by, if you know where to look. Use this guide to find the best free things to do.

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Find free events in LA to help you rediscover the city. Explore cultural institutions like the Getty and take advantage of some of the best live music LA has to offer without opening your wallet. Cheap eats are great, but nothing beats a free day out. Get inspired for your next date night or family outing with our list of free upcoming events.

RECOMMENDED: Full list of free things to do in LA

  • Art
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  • Boyle Heights

Your favorite plush ’80s obsession meets the contemporary art market at this show from Corey Helford Gallery, which features pieces of Care Bears-inspired work by 75 currently working artists. Oh, and of course there’s a pop-up shop as part of the Boyle Heights-area show.

  • Things to do
  • Markets and fairs
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  • 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.

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  • Art
  • Painting
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  • Beverly Hills

Did this past year’s Basquiat exhibition in DTLA leave you wanting more? Head to Beverly Hills where Gagosian will be displaying 30 rarely loaned Jean-Michel Basquiat pieces that were created in L.A. during the iconic artist’s time spent at his Venice studio between 1982 and 1984.

  • Art
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  • Hollywood

What does living in L.A. look like? It’s a wildly different picture depending on each Angeleno’s point of view, and so to celebrate that diversity of perspectives, Hollywood gallery Jeffrey Deitch will display pieces from a dozen local artists that delve into underground economies, landscapes, surveillance, backyard hangouts and public transit, among other topics.

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  • Things to do
  • Festivals
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  • USC/Exposition Park

Bibliophiles flock to the USC campus for this L.A. Times-curated event, where you can roam stalls from booksellers and catch readings and panels from some of the most recognizable names in literature on April 20 and 21. In addition to the 300-plus exhibitors, this year’s event includes an always-impressive lineup of more than 500 speakers: Jose Andres, Lance Bass, Ed Begley Jr., Sophia Bush, Jon Favreau, Max Greenfield, Tiffany Haddish, Tamron Hall, Mark Harmon, RuPaul, Kerry Washington, Henry Winkler and more, plus a cooking stage with Nancy Silverton, QCP and Tiffani Thiessen, among others. Admission to the festival and its seven outdoor stages are free, though admission to indoor talks come with a small ticketing fee. Reservations for those aren’t available until April 14 but if you want to secure a spot now, you can purchase a “friend of the festival” package, which lets you reserve up to 20 panel tickets (plus some other perks) for $85.

  • Art
  • Street art
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  • La Brea

See over 200 of Gordon Matta-Clark’s photos, many of which have never been on display in public, from the earliest years of New York’s graffiti scene during this show at Beyond the Streets. The adjacent CONTROL Gallery will simultaneously present a new collection of local assembly artist Guillaume Ollivier’s works.

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  • Art
  • Contemporary art
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  • Downtown

This show at the Broad was supposed to debut in April of 2020 to kicks off the museum’s fifth anniversary, but, you know… the world had other plans. Thankfully, you’ll finally have a chance to see this free collection exhibition with a focus on L.A. artists, including Sayre Gomez, Toba Khedoori, Patrick Martinez and Barbara Kruger alongside an entire gallery dedicated to John Baldessari and Mike Kelley.

  • Art
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  • Downtown Arts District

In 1993, artist Charles Gaines mounted “ The Theater of Refusal: Black Art and Mainstream Criticism,” a UC Irvine gallery show that responded to the country’s cultural and political crises with works from then-up-and-coming Black artists. Now, three decades later, Hauser & Wirth has revived the show in two parts: a small reprise of “The Theater of Refusal” with ’90s pieces from Gaines, Gary Simmons and Lorna Simpson, as well as a larger room that continues the show’s themes with recent works from Lauren Halsey, Rashid Johnson, Caroline Kent and more.

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  • Things to do
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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.

  • Things to do
  • Performances
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  • Chinatown

In celebration of the late Bob Baker, the namesake puppet theater hosts this annual celebration at Los Angeles State Historic Park. The free fest, which runs from 10am to 5pm, features puppet performances throughout the day, plus an assortment of crafts and activities that typically includes everything from bubbles to balloons to music. This year’s event includes an appearance by David Arquette as Bozo the Clown, a kid’s talent show hosted by Kate Micucci, music from Very Be Careful and a kickoff with legendary puppeteer Sid Krofft.

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Museums of the Arroyo Day
  • Things to do
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Explore the history of early Los Angeles life with free admission to five museums in Northeast L.A. and Pasadena. The annual Museums of the Arroyo Day is the perfect opportunity to brush up on historical architecture—the Gamble House, Heritage Square and the Lummis Home—and relics from L.A.’s past—L.A. Police Museum and Pasadena Museum of History. In addition to free entry, you’ll find shuttle service between all five museums. Some of the sites are bike and A Line-friendly as well. MOTA Day runs from noon to 5pm, with last admission at 4pm.

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  • Things to do
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The first Rose Parade in 1890 was staged to show off California’s sun-kissed climate. The tradition is still going strong, complete with elaborate floral floats, musical performances and marching troupes (not to mention the crowning of the fresh-faced Rose Queen and her court), but the celebration now draws more than a million spectators who line the streets of Pasadena. The big Rose Bowl football game follows the parade. Later in the year, the event is spoofed with a day of costumed mayhem at the Doo Dah Parade. The parade—held on New Year’s Day—kicks off at 8am at the corner of Green Street and Orange Grove Boulevard before making its way east onto Colorado Boulevard. Near the end of the route, the parade turns north onto Sierra Madre Boulevard and concludes at Villa Street, where you can see the floats showcased.  Bleacher seats are available—about $120 in the TV zone and closer to $75 farther east—but you can grab a spot on the sidewalk for free. People traditionally camp out overnight, but if you’d rather show up the morning of, head east of Lake Avenue and you’ll have an easier time.

  • Things to do
  • Festivals
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  • East Hollywood

Learn how to decorate a traditional Ukrainian Easter egg (a pysanka, which features colorful wax applied to the egg) during this free community festival on Melrose. The Ukrainian Culture Center hosts an afternoon with Ukrainian food, entertainment and an Easter market. Though the event is free to attend, donations are accepted at the door; those as well as food and vendor proceeds benefit humanitarian war relief through the Ukrainian Art Centerand Post Angeles.

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  • Art
  • Photography
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See works from 32 photographers projected onto an 80-foot-wide, three-story-high wall during this free outdoor art event. You can catch two screenings on the side of a building from familiar names like Jeff Bridges, Ringo Chiu and Estevan Oriol; find it at 713 North Hill Street in Chinatown.

  • Art
  • Installation
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The desert-spanning biennial is back, with premieres of site-specific works from about a dozen artists. For its fifth iteration, Desert X will once again stage outdoor installations across about 40 miles of the Coachella Valley from March 8 to May 11, 2025.

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