November 2023 events calendar for Los Angeles

The Hammer Museum’s excellent, ongoing series of biennial exhibitions ups the ante each year with its spotlight on emerging and under-recognized L.A. artists, and the sixth edition seems like no exception. Titled “Acts of Living,” this year’s show focuses on how art is inseperable from everyday life and includes a mix of new commissions and historical works from 39 up-and-coming and prolific artists.

Each year, Descanso Gardens’ nighttime experience masterfully mixes hands-on art installations with atmospheric, luminescent forests, all against a background of uplit trees and shimmery sound effects.

There’s nothing Christmassy nor even wintry about this hour-long Palos Verdes trail, yet its nine stellar installations are the most cosmically mesmerizing of the budding after-dark botanical garden shows that’ve come to blanket L.A. toward the end of the year.

The L.A. Zoo is staying open after dark most nights through January during this delightful take on its light-up holiday tradition. For the 2023 edition, L.A. Zoo Lights is adding some new sculptures and “Winter Wildlands,” a section inspired by snow-loving animals.

The American Cinematheque settles back in at the Egyptian with this festival of large-format classics at the just-renovated Hollywood movie palace. From November 10 to 21, you can watch a slate of glorious 70mm selections that includes Boogie Nights, West Side Story, Spartacus, The Master, The Wild Bunch, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Nope and Lawrence of Arabia (plus, for members only, Playtime and Aliens).

Drift into the Convention Center for the 10-day L.A. Auto Show with cars that would even make Bond drool. If you’re a car nerd, get behind the wheel to test drive one of the cherry rides (including an indoor EV track), while celebrities meet and greet at the manufacturer exhibits. With world and North American debuts from a slate of manufacturers, rev up for the machines of the future.

Uplit trees and illuminated installations will once again dot the roughly mile-long pathway at the third edition of Lightscape at the L.A. County Arboretum. For the 2023 season, the Arboretum has announced a “reimagined” event with an expanded trail. The light cathedral will, of course, make its return, as will the fire garden, one of our standouts from Lightscape’s first year in Arcadia.

Like an Angelyne billboard on Sunset Boulevard, the Hollywood Christmas Parade is an essential part of L.A. kitsch. The nine-decade–old parade will feature floats, balloons, bands, equestrians and celebrities as they ride in a U-shaped route that begins at Hollywood and Orange and ends up at Sunset and Orange. Reserved grandstand seats can be purchased, with proceeds going to Toys for Tots, but free curbside seating is also available.

If you went clubbing at any point in the mid-2010s, it’s probably safe to say that you had at least one sloppy night dancing to “Get Low” by Dillon Francis (and DJ Snake). Since putting out his debut album, Money Sucks, Friends Rule, Francis has been ruling the dancefloor and festivals with his vibrant deep house mixes.

Catch him in L.A. this fall with a trio of dates: an intimate set at the Roxy under his DJ Hanzel moniker, a Moombahton set at the Mayan and then a Dillon Francis and Friends show at the Shrine.

Pantages hosts this musical about a young bride, her freewheeling mother and the three men who might be her daddy, all set to chart-busting tunes by ABBA.

Riverside’s stunningly beautiful Mission Inn is bathed in 4.5 million twinkly lights during the annual Festival of Lights. The free seven-week-long holiday tradition runs from mid-November to early January and typically features more than 400 animated figures.

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.

L.A. doesn’t typically seem like much of a winter wonderland, until, that is, you create an ice skating rink right in the midst of Downtown skyscrapers. Come glide around and pretend there’s snow on the ground at Pershing Square’s outdoor holiday skating rink. Skate rentals are included in admission, though lockers and skating aids costs a few dollars extra.

Celebrate Thanksgiving with this catchall family-friendly event along Downtown’s Spring Street, chock-full of races, games and activities. Work off those calories in either the 5K or the 10K run/walk (there’s also a 1K “Widdle Wobble” for kids 10 and under). Costumes are always encouraged. Each year, the race benefits the Midnight Mission.

Hellish landscapes, imposing bearded figures, muscular dragons: Poet and painter William Blake’s bold biblical pieces still look trippy today, let alone in the 1800s. In cooperation with the Tate, the Getty has assembled some of the British artist’s most imaginative, celebrated works.

Judy Baca’s half-mile–long The Great Wall of Los Angeles, a collaborative mural painted in the ’70s along the Tujunga Wash, has received all sorts of museum love in the past few years. But LACMA has a particularly unique show to boast about: The local Chicana muralist and SPARC artists will paint two new sections of The Great Wall during museum hours. The exhibit also debuts a new section of the wall, in honor of activists known as the Freedom Riders, dubbed Generation on Fire.

“POKÉMON X KOGEI | Playful Encounters of Pokémon and Japanese Craft” puts the focus on a pair of Japanese cultural exports and the collision between a decades-old gaming franchise and centuries-old crafting techniques.

Dubbed “The Trilogy Tour,” this arena show promises to be the true vida loca: Enrique Iglesias, Pitbull and Ricky Martin headline a pair of shows at the Crypto.com Arena.

Can’t get enough of his yearly appearance at the Bowl? The LA Phil follows up John Williams’s summertime set with the first of two years of live scores and concerts in his honor at Disney Hall. You can see live scores of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in November.

Located just blocks from the ocean, Ice in downtown Santa Monica brings a bit of winter to the comfortable coastal city. The 8,000-square-foot outdoor rink runs daily from November to mid-January on the corner of Fifth Street and Arizona Avenue (less than a 10-minute walk from the E Line). Tickets for an hour-long slot ($22) include skate rentals, and you can book private parties and cabanas if you’re looking for something a bit more premium. Look out for treats for sale, plus themed nights on Wednesdays.

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The “Love Me Like You Do” singer plays the Walt Disney Concert Hall backed by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.

We feel it in our fingers, we feel it in our toes: Christmas is all around, and we bet no one knows it better than the cast of Love Actually Live. From late November through the end of December, cult-favorite musical series For the Record presents a stage show based on one of the world’s most beloved holiday movies, Love Actually.

The LA Phil is entering its 20th season at the singular Walt Disney Concert Hall, and to celebrate the orchestra will mount a series of tributes to and collaborations with the hall’s architect.

The Sunset Strip’s famed Roxy is celebrating its 50th anniversary, and to mark the occassion the GRAMMY Museum will display a half-century-worth of photos and memorabilia. Highlights include behind-the-scenes photos of and the piano from the music venue’s celeb-filled upstairs lounge, a documentary short on the club and more than 60 photos of performers like Cheech & Chong, the Clash, Bob Marley, Patti Smith, Guns N’ Roses, Neil Young and Frank Zappa. You’ll even find items from The Rocky Horror Show, a nine-month-long run at the Roxy of the stage show that soon after spawn the legendary movie musical.

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.

Stroll across the grounds of King Gillette Ranch as the Santa Monica Mountains hideaway is illuminated during Holiday Road, which returns with a nearly mile-long walking trail. The event, which comes from the same team as Nights of the Jack, includes festive decor like a treetop canopy of icicle lights, a small Christmas village, freestanding oversized decorations and archways of lights. Look out for food trucks and a holiday bar while you’re there.

Bluey, the delightful animated show that you’re about as obsessed with as your toddler, is bringing its imaginative Brisbane living room a little closer to home with this Century Century pop-up. Toy store and craft center CAMP will recreate Bluey’s playroom complete with a two-story pillow fort and cardboard box castle as well as some of her favorite games (including magic asparagus and keepy uppy). Plus, you can pose with some adorable Bingo and Bluey costumed characters at the end—and of course pick up exclusive Bluey merch.

See more than 150 powerful photographs shot by nine photographers in this civil rights movement exhibition at the Skirball. A mix of photos of daily life, protests and key figures like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the black-and-white photos on display here put the focus on both the people in front of the camera and the activists beind the lens.

“This Light of Ours: Activist Photographers of the Civil Rights Movement” is part of a trio of exhibitions at the museum this fall, including “The American Library,” a colorful collection of six thousand textile-wrapped books with the names of immigrants on their spines from artist Yinka Shonibare, and “RECLAIMED: A Family Painting,” a portrait of multiple generations of the Bloch as told through the Nazi seizure and eventual recovery of a painting that hung in their living room in Czechoslovakia.

The GRAMMY Museum celebrates hip-hop’s 50th anniversary with interactive DJing, rapping and sampling stations and instantly recognizable artifacts like LL Cool J’s red Kangol bucket hat and the Notorious B.I.G.’s red leather pea coat.

Face your fears and head to the Natural History Museum’s Spider Pavilion, where you can observe several hundred orbweaver spiders in a living exhibit just outside of the museum. Scared the spiders might be hard to spot in the wild? Fret not. In previous iterations we’ve spotted ones about the size of an adult’s palm. Gulp. (But don’t worry: The scariest ones are in enclosed habitats.) 

See more than 80 works on paper and pieces of sculpture from the past three decades as the USC Fisher Museum of Art presents this show on Kara Walker, best known for her silhouette cutouts that tackle the painful legacies of slavery and unequal power structures.

Get lost in a world of Wockets and Truffula Trees contained within this immersive experience, inspired by the literary works of Dr. Seuss. Bringing to life the characters and landscapes of books like The Cat in the Hat and The Lorax, The Dr. Seuss Experience is filled with a series of rooms where guests can interact with characters and snap photos. At the center of the pop-up, there’s a maze inspired by The Sneetches made up of mirrors. Find the touring show at Santa Monica Place starting November 2023.

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 The Golden Skewer, Shlap Muan and Thai Town's Rad Na Silom.

Take a seat under the arch at the former Hollywood & Highland for this free series of movie screenings the last Friday of the month. Show up two hours early for live music, and stop by the Ovation Hollywood booth for free popcorn and discounted treats from the TCL Chinese Theatre concessions stand.

Artist Glenn Kaino’s grandfather, Akira Shiraishi, was a star high school football player whose dreams were cut short when he was incarcerated at the Heart Mountain concentration camp in Wyoming during WWII. When he returned to East L.A., he and his wife Sachiye opened a market on the corner of Blanchard Street and Geraghty Avenue—which Kaino has recreated via virtual reality and a contemporary store at the Japanese American National Museum.

Whenever, wherever, you’re meant to be at this exhibition of 40 pieces from Shakira’s personal archive. The GRAMMY Museum is surveying the Colombian singer’s career with the display of Super Bowl outfits, crystal-embellished guitars and handwritten lyrics, among other objects.

See over 250 artifiacts, many of which are being displayed outside of Guatemala for the first time, inside this spotlight on Mayan civilizations at the California Science Center. Objects on display include a nine-foot-long jaguar warrior sculpture and a mask made of obsidian and jade.

This Christmas-themed Costa Mesa event includes a North Pole walkthrough, carnival rides, sledding, ice tubing and tons of lights.

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