La Catrina sculptures by artist Ricardo Soltero
Photograph: Courtesy Downtown Santa Monica, Inc. | La Catrina sculptures by artist Ricardo Soltero.
Photograph: Courtesy Downtown Santa Monica, Inc.

Free things to do in Los Angeles this month

Make the most of your month without breaking into your wallet.

Gillian Glover
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October is here, so put on a cardigan, sip a PSL and listen up. The month might not bring as much fall foliage as we’d prefer, but hey, there’s a slight chill in the air, and that passes for fall in these parts. Cue the coziness, Halloween happenings, apple picking, Oktoberfests and Day of the Dead celebrations—and many of these fall festivities let you get in on the fun for free. October also boasts a handful of complimentary arts and culture events, from the epic annual Grand Ave Arts: All Access to the Beverly Hills Art Show to the return of the standout “Made in L.A.” exhibition at the Hammer.

The best free things to do in L.A. this month

  • Art
  • Contemporary art
  • Westwood
  • Recommended

The Hammer Museum’s excellent, ongoing series of biennial exhibitions ups the ante with each edition of its spotlight on emerging and under-recognized L.A. artists. This October’s exhibition—the seventh such show—will bring together works from 28 artists, spanning film, painting, theater, photography, sculpture and video, that engage with the city of Los Angeles.

  • Things to do
  • Festivals
  • Fairfax District

Halloween time can be a bit scary for kids—we’ve all been there—so for a less frightening affair, head to the Original Farmers Market for its children-friendly Fall Festival: Carnival games, a petting zoo, crafts and a pumpkin patch (for a small fee) are all mainstays at this annual harvest fest. Come in costume, catch a musical performance and explore the always-delicious treats at the market.

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  • Things to do
  • Westside

Ahead of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, the Getty will hold an afternoon of free activities and performances—including music, comedy, dance, drumming and poetry—to learn about Southern California’s Native American cultures. This year’s theme celebrates libraries and storytelling. Try your hand at collage or zine-making, or head to the garden for a drag storytime hour. 

  • Music
  • Jazz
  • Miracle Mile
  • Recommended

One of L.A.’s best free live-music offerings, Jazz at LACMA has featured legit legends over its three-decade run at the museum. Seating for the program is available in the museum’s plaza on a first-come, first-served basis, though you’re welcome to picnic on the grass, too (you won’t really be able to see the show, but you’ll still hear it). You’ll find the series on Friday evenings in LACMA’s welcome plaza (just behind Urban Light) throughout the month.

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  • Things to do
  • Festivals
  • Recommended

While some may scoff at the idea of Grand Avenue becoming L.A.’s Champs-Élysées, we’re too busy making the most of the Downtown street’s cultural treasures to even engage in that argument.

For one afternoon, more than a dozen institutions will celebrate their Bunker Hill home with free performances, exhibitions and tours. Most of the action takes place on Grand Avenue between Temple and Sixth Streets.

Highlights of this year’s event on October 25 include a singing workshop and a chance to try instruments at the Colburn School; a sugar skull workshop and Halloween necklace-making at the Los Angeles Central Library; LA Opera recitals at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion; a preview of the world’s first museum of AI arts, DATALAND; and a Day of the Dead celebration at Gloria Molina Grand Park.

Other participating institutions include the BroadMOCAREDCATthe Music Center, Center Theatre Group, the Los Angeles Master ChoraleWalt Disney Concert HallGrand Performances and Metro, which now has a station just off of Grand Avenue atop Bunker Hill.

  • Things to do
  • Santa Monica

Santa Monica will host crafts, performances and larger-than-life art installations during this Day of the Dead event at Third Street Promenade. Look out for paper mache sculptures by local artist Ricardo Soltero, who’s created pieces especially for Santa Monica. You’ll also find community altars, a Latinx pop-up market, free face painting for kids, and ballet folklórico and Aztec dancers.

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  • Things to do
  • Markets and fairs
  • Beverly Hills

Every spring and fall since 1973, artists have descended upon the Beverly Gardens Park to showcase their work to browsers and buyers at this festival (once called the Affaire in the Gardens). This year will feature 235 artists exhibiting paintings, sculptures, watercolors, photography and much more. Set on four blocks along the grassy Santa Monica Boulevard between Rodeo and Rexford Drives, the event will include something for everyone, with free kids’ activities, food trucks, and beer and wine gardens with live music.

  • Things to do
  • Recommended

Pasadena’s underrated collection of museums and performance spaces open up their doors for free at this biannual arts and culture open house. Take advantage of the free shuttle buses to travel between local institutions such as the USC Pacific Asia Museum, ArtCenter and more, many of which will be offering special programming and performances. And, of course, no arts fest would be complete without food trucks, which often include pop-ups from local bricks-and-mortar.

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  • Things to do
  • Recommended

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 welcomes bikes, tricycles, skateboards, strollers and basically anything else without an engine to ride a rotating cast of car-free routes. This time around, CicLAvia is celebrating its 15th birthday with a 7.15-mile route covering Westlake, Downtown, Chinatown, Little Tokyo, Arts District and Boyle Heights. 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
  • Festivals

Plenty of Angelenos take their dogs to street fairs, but what about an event specifically for your furry friend? Enter the Day of the Dog, a free fest on Main Street in Santa Monica (between Ocean Park Boulevard and Strand Avenue) that features over 100 pet-centric vendors and lots of dog-friendly attractions, including a ball pit, a foam party, doggie brunch, a surf machine, a pool party and a Halloween costume contest, plus photo ops, races, a puppuccino bar and 18 tons of snow for dogs to play in.

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  • Things to do
  • Recommended

Sure, it doesn’t look so glamorous now, but give it a few years, a billion or so dollars and some steady rain, and the L.A. River will be a point of civic pride for Angelenos. Do your part in the meantime at the Friends of the Los Angeles River’s 35th annual cleanup, which is expanding to two weekends this year. Rather than focusing on one spot, the events will tackle multiple locations on October 11 and 18: the Willow Street Bridge in Long Beach, Bond Park in Atwater Village, the Sepulveda Basin in the Valley, and Compton Creek just steps from the Metro A Line.

  • Things to do
  • Markets and fairs
  • West Hollywood

Following a successful first outing, this Sunset Strip vinyl fair is back with a spooky twist. Once again, you’ll find a vinyl and music memorabilia market in the Pink Dot parking lot, as well as some Halloween-inspired activations. Mix and mingle among booths from an expanded lineup of more than 50 local record stores and vintage vendors. Tickets are free, but reservations are encouraged and can be made hereThe fair also kicks off the first-ever Sunset Strip Costume Bar Crawl, which will run through November 2 with food and drink specials, DJ sets, live music, parties and trick-or-treat stops.

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  • Things to do
  • Walks and tours
  • Lincoln Heights

Exercise your support for L.A.’s fine artists at the biannual Brewery ArtWalk. Totally free to attend (and park), this open studio weekend takes place at the roomy Lincoln Heights arts complex, where around 100 resident artists show off their new works for purchase or simply the admiration of art loving locals. Chat with midcentury-inspired ceramicists and multimedia sculptors before dining at the Brewery’s on-site restaurant or some food trucks. You’ll return home buzzed on culture, and potentially the proud owner of a one-of-a-kind oil painting.

  • Things to do
  • Hawthorne

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles is behind this trio of doggie- and beer-centric Oktoberfest events (though two are in September) at local breweries. First up is a daytime affair at Common Space Brewing in Hawthorne, which will mark the occasion with dog-friendly vendors, pet caricatures, a weiner dog race at 2pm (entry fee proceeds will benefit spcaLA) and, for humans, a stein-making pottery class at 4pm. Later on, dog-friendly Los Angeles Ale Works in Culver City will host its own version with adoptable pups (Sept 26), followed by a similar event at the Ale Works outpost in Hawthorne (Oct 17).  

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  • Things to do
  • Festivals
  • Recommended

This is one of the largest Halloween street parties in the world, and there’s really no better place to be on October 31st. Sure, the crowd is huge (like, a half-million people huge) and a bit belligerent, but the amazing display of costumes and general merry-making spirit deem it at least a worthy stop, if not your main destination for the evening. There will be dancing, drinking and many impromptu costume contests. Even if you don’t plan on entering one, it’s best to still come dressed to the nines—no one likes a party pooper in jeans and a T-shirt. Find it along Santa Monica Boulevard, between Doheny Drive and La Cienega Boulevard.

See our guide to the West Hollywood Halloween Carnaval.

  • Things to do
  • Exhibitions
  • Hollywood

Japan House Los Angeles is bringing an exhibition of shokuhin sampuruhyper-realistic food replicas that have crossed over from marketing tool to art form (think Is It Cake? but cultural)—to Los Angeles for the first time. See mouthwatering faux food representing each of Japan’s 47 prefectures, from coffee house parfaits to izakaya skewers, as well as Chinese and Western cuisine, and try your own hand at food presentation by filling a bentō box yourself.

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  • Things to do
  • Festivals
  • Huntington Beach

Billing itself as “Orange County’s biggest party since 1977,” the Old World Oktoberfest promises enough beers, brats and bands to make you feel like you’re in Munich—albeit with better ocean views. Every Wednesday through Sunday between September 7 and November 9, this re-created Bavarian village will offer a sausage-filled menu, oompah and German bands, a biergarten, dancing and more. While Old World’s Oktoberfest is 21-plus with a cover charge on Friday and Saturday evenings, it’s open to families and revelers of all ages on Saturday afternoons and other nights. (Entry is free on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday nights, as well as Saturday afternoons, just book ahead online.)

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  • Things to do
  • Festivals
  • Lake Arrowhead

Held in the so-called Alps of Southern California, Lake Arrowhead’s all-ages Oktoberfest runs every weekend from September 20 to October 26 this year, hosting live German American oompah bands, stein-holding and dance contests, children’s games and a daily sausage toss. Although there’s no entry fee, attendees are advised to book picnic (for up to eight people, $100–$150 on Saturdays, $50–$100 on Sundays) or pub tables (for up to four, $50–$100 on Saturdays, $25–$50 on Sundays) to secure seats closer to the stage. This year, the event is being held in a new venue, the picturesque Waterfront Park.

  • Things to do
  • Markets and fairs
  • Downtown Arts District
  • Recommended

Every Sunday, you can find dozens of food vendors at this market at ROW DTLA, a Brooklyn import that boasts a mix of much-loved pop-ups and future foodie stars. Over a dozen new vendors just joined the lineup: Feast on Afro-Caribbean cuisine from withBee, Lebanese street food from Teta, ice cream tacos from Sad Girl Creamery and more. Wash it all down at the family-friendly beer garden. You’ll also find shopping stalls selling everything from framed vintage ads to jewelry made locally with ethically sourced gemstones. Entry and the first two hours of parking are free.

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  • Things to do
  • Exhibitions
  • Pacific Palisades

The Getty Villa reopens to the public five and a half months after its Palisades Fire closure with this international loan exhibition dedicated to the Greek Mycenaean civilization and the kingdom of Pylos, which Homer immortalized in the Iliad and Odyssey. It’s the first major museum show in North America devoted to the Late Bronze Age Mycenaeans. See treasures excavators unearthed from Messenia, the Palace of Nestor and burial sites including the tomb of the Griffin Warrior (1450 BCE)—think clay tablets, gold cups, ornate weapons and tiny signets and sealstones adorned with awe-inspiring amounts of detail. 

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  • Art
  • Pop art
  • Westside
  • Recommended

The Skirball’s latest pop culture exhibition takes a deep dive into the six-decade career of legendary comic book artist Jack Kirby. You might know him as the co-creator of Captain America, Black Panther, the Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men and some of the Marvel universe’s most cosmic characters. But did you know he was also a first-generation Jewish American born to immigrant parents, World War II veteran and family man who split his time between New York and Los Angeles? Learn about his life and see Kirby’s original comic illustrations, as well as other works—many on view for the first time. Tickets to the Skirball will cost you $18—except on Thursdays, when entry is free with a reservation.

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