November 2025 events calendar for Los Angeles

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.

The masters of alfresco rooftop movie viewing have returned for another season of screenings to LEVEL in Downtown L.A. Known for excellent film choices and a steady supply of snacks and booze, Rooftop Cinema Club is your snazzy, comfortable and less stressful alternative to other outdoor movie screenings. You don’t even need to bring your own camping chair—Rooftop Cinema Club provides you with your very own comfy lawn chair (with optional blankets for purchase to up the coziness). And instead of listening to the movie over loudspeakers, you’ll get a set of wireless headphones so you never have to miss a word. Find the full schedule on their site, or in our outdoor movie calendar.

This haunted Griffith Park hayride once again returns to the mid-’80s fictitious town of Midnight Falls, which borrows a little bit of the road culture of Sons of Anarchy and the isolation of Twin Peaks. And this year the Mistress of the Dark herself, Elvira, is taking up residence. The Griffith Park tradition, which has been running for 17 years now, centers on a relatively lengthy hayride, which runs on select nights from September 19 to November 2. The premise: A witch has summoned creatures that’ve hidden themselves among Halloween decorations in the town’s foothills. This year’s event promises new Elvira–themed takes on the Scary-Go-Round and Trick or Treat attraction, as well as a cozy lounge where apple cider and doughnuts provide a respite from the scares. The event’s various other attractions will be centered around the jack-o’-lantern–filled Midnight Falls Town Square, with a Janelle Monáe-headlined party manor as well axe throwing, water balloon–based paintball (or “Zombie Splat”) and the Hellbilly Halloween maze. Can I wear a costume? No. Costumes, face paint and props are not allowed. Where do I park for the Haunted Hayride? Prepaid parking is available but limited in the trio of nearby lots (Merry-Go-Round lots 1, 2 and 3). You can also park for free in the much larger L.A. Zoo parking lot and take a shuttle from the lot’s northwest corner to the event. Note: While the hayride used to take place at the Griffith Park Old Zoo, in recent years it’s moved...

Perhaps the Los Angeles area’s most iconic flea market, this event around the exterior of the Rose Bowl is staggeringly colossal—but what else would you expect from a 90,000-seat stadium? The sheer size and scale of this flea market means that it encompasses multitudes: new and old, hand-crafted and salvaged, the cheap and the costly. On the second Sunday of each month, an odd mix of vendors populates the loop around the stadium: for every eye-catching artwork, there’s a ratty $5 T-shirt, and for each elegant craft there’s a competing “as seen on TV” demo. But you may have more luck in the rows and rows of old furniture, albums and vintage clothes and accessories that fill the adjacent parking lot. There are plenty of duds, to be sure, but come out early enough and you may go home with that perfect purchase. This destination flea market attracts bargain hunters, collectors, and antique aficionados from all over the county, so the organizers have instituted an extensive tiered entry/admission system, allowing professional and dedicated shoppers early access at a premium.

This traveling horror-themed Halloween cocktail pop-up will have three locations in L.A. this year: Melrose Umbrella Club in Beverly Grove, the Corner Door in Culver City and the Ordinarie in Long Beach. Halloween lovers can sip expertly mixed cocktails amid metal music and goth decor, including the famous 12-foot-tall skeleton from Home Depot. Drink highlights include the Corpse Flower (tequila blanco, ube syrup, Giffard Banane, lime juice, sherry) and the Creature’s Curse (rice-washed rye and rum, sherry, sweet potato or pumpkin syrup, bitters). Non-alcoholic options will also be available.

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 joined the lineup this year: 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.

Walk across the grounds of the scenic King Gillette Ranch in Calabasas as the Santa Monica Mountains hideaway is illuminated with thousands of hand-carved jack-o’-lanterns. (Fun fact: Calabasas has a pumpkin-filled history—it’s actually named after the Spanish word for the gourd: “calabaza”.) Night of the Jack returns with an on-foot, mile-long trail this year, plus live pumpkin-carving, food trucks and a “Spookeasy,” too.  For 2025, the family-friendly Night of the Jack promises its biggest season yet, with new themed environments and multisensory experiences that make use of projection mapping.  Timed tickets are required each night. As is the case with all similar experiences, they’re not cheap and fluctuate ($29–$63) depending on the day of the week and time of night. Expect to spend an hour to an hour and a half there, though that could double on weekends (and closer to Halloween) when the entry crowds and food truck lines tick up.

Don’t go in the water, but do go to the Academy Museum to see the largest exhibition ever dedicated to Steven Spielberg’s original summer blockbuster, Jaws—which is celebrating its 50th anniversary. The museum was already home to the last surviving model shark from filming, but now you can go behind the scenes and see some 200 original objects from the film across multiple galleries. Some highlights: a re-creation of the Orca fishing boat, the dorsal fin used both in Jaws and its sequels, costumes worn by the central trio and a room full of vintage film posters and merch promoting the film. There are interactive elements, too: You can have your own Chief Brody dolly-zoom moment (and see the lens used to film the famous shot), play the iconic John Williams two-note score and control a replica of the mechanical shark.

From the same folks behind the nightmarish Creep (which is taking the year off), JFI Productions’ The Willows is an immersive play—part dinner theater and part haunted house—in which you are one of 25 guests at an intimate family gathering at the historic Beckett Mansion near West Adams. The intimate, two-hour performance trades more in atmosphere than jump scares, but its surreal circumstances and sense of unease and anticipation will more than scratch that Halloween itch. This one is a favorite of Halloween aficionados and A-listers, and I can see why. The experience truly made me feel like I was in a horror movie—not a slasher, but an unsettling family drama that draws you in and sticks with you. The acting was excellent all around—the actors stayed in character impeccably and are also skilled enough to improvise during impromptu conversations with guests. When I left, I half wanted to stay in touch with all of them.  You enter the experience in groups of five, and each group is taken on its own journey, meeting up with the others for drinks and dinner. So while there are some narrative beats that everyone experiences, you could ostensibly attend several times and have a different experience each time. And participation is practically a requirement.  Tickets are expensive—$250 per person—but, as evidenced by the fact that all of October’s performances sold out right away, audiences clearly find the high price tag worth it. At the time of writing, there are a handful...

This Denver-originated Halloween attraction returns to L.A. with thousands of hand-carved jack-o’-lanterns lining a pathway at a new location this year: the beautiful South Coast Botanic Garden in Palos Verdes. Pumpkin light shows, bounce pads, inflatables and festive food complete the family-friendly experience.