[photo credit: Rotary Club of Altadena]

Stevie Nicks Illusion plays the lower lawn at Loma Alta Park on Saturday, the season’s last night

The Rotary Club of Altadena has put free music in a park on summer Saturdays since 1997. It has missed exactly one season — 2020, when the pandemic canceled it. It did not miss the summer after the Eaton Fire.

The 29th season, staged in partnership with Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation, ends Saturday at 7 p.m. with Stevie Nicks Illusion, a Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks tribute act presented by GigRoster.com, on the lower lawn at Loma Alta Park, 3330 N. Lincoln Ave. Admission is free. The Rotary Club sells beer and wine.

Where the concerts happen is itself part of the story. The series spent years at Farnsworth Park, which the January 2025 fire damaged. Loma Alta Park also closed after the fire and reopened on May 17, 2025, following a $3.4 million renovation — the first county park to reopen after the Eaton Fire, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation, which said it compressed a rebuild that would ordinarily take about 18 months into roughly two. The work added two Dodgers Dreamfields, a gymnasium renovated by the LA Clippers Foundation, a satellite senior center and a technology center.

Norma E. García-González, director of Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation, said at the reopening that the community asked for the park to reopen. Kathryn Barger, chair of the county Board of Supervisors, called it a vital gathering place, especially in times of healing.

This summer’s lineup ran through a Taylor Swift tribute, a salsa band, a Beatles tribute, steel drum reggae and Motown before arriving here. The Rotary Club has said it is grateful to Barger and the county Parks and Recreation Department for making it possible to keep the series going as Altadena recovers.

Saturday is the last one of the season.

Stevie Nicks Illusion will perform on Saturday, August 22 at 7 p.m. Loma Alta Park, 3330 N. Lincoln Ave., Altadena. Visit altadenarotary.org. Admission is free. Beer and wine available for purchase.

[photo credit: Sierra Madre Playhouse]

Absolute Focus and Chris Votek bring a rare Hindustani pairing to Sierra Madre Playhouse

The cello does not belong in a Hindustani raga. It has no traditional seat there, no centuries of repertoire, no established vocabulary of ornament. On Sunday afternoon at Sierra Madre Playhouse, one will take that seat anyway — wedged between a santoor and a pair of tabla and asked to hold its own.

Cellist Chris Votek joins Absolute Focus, the husband-and-wife duo of santoor player Kamaljeet Ahluwalia and tabla player Jas Ahluwalia, at 4 p.m. for a program of traditional Hindustani raga. The presenter describes the instrumental combination as one rarely heard together in the form.

Kamaljeet Ahluwalia began training at seven under sitar maestro Dharambir Singh and later studied with santoor maestro Harjinderpal Singh. Her most formative period came under the late Pandit Shivkumar Sharma. The santoor is a hammered dulcimer whose shimmering resonance is central to the Hindustani tradition. Jas Ahluwalia studied tabla under Ustad Tari Khan.

Votek is described by the presenter as one of very few cellists in the world fluent in Hindustani music. He has spent years adapting Gayaki-ang, the vocal-derived style, to the cello — its bends, its ornaments, its breath-shaped phrasing. Set against santoor and tabla, the instrument works as another voice in the call-and-response at the center of raga performance.

The program follows the music’s traditional arc rather than a sequence of separate pieces: a slow, meditative alap first, then denser rhythmic interplay building toward a crescendo.

The concert is part of the Playhouse’s Indian Classical Music Series, within a 2026 season the 99-seat, 1924-founded theater calls “Small Stage, Big World.”

Absolute Focus with Chris Votek will perform on Sunday, August 16 at 4 p.m. Sierra Madre Playhouse, 87 W. Sierra Madre Blvd., Sierra Madre. For more information, call (626) 355-4318 or visit sierramadreplayhouse.org. Tickets: $12 to $35.

photo credit: LOS ANGELES CHILDREN’S CHORUS]

The Pasadena-based, GRAMMY-winning Los Angeles Children’s Chorus announced Friday it has received a 2026 General Operating Support Grant from the Perenchio Foundation. The $2,040,000 grant, which will be distributed over three years, is the largest in LACC’s history. It reflects the strength of LACC’s programs and governance practices, and the significant role the chorus plays in the community. LACC is currently celebrating its 40^th Anniversary.

Perenchio Foundation’s General Operating Support Grants provide unrestricted, multi-year funding to arts organizations across Los Angeles County. These grants are designed to strengthen organizational infrastructure, support long-term planning, and build the financial resilience that allows arts organizations to grow with stability — and to endure.

“Los Angeles Children’s Chorus is deeply grateful to receive this extraordinary support from the Perenchio Foundation,” said Susan Miller Kotses, LACC Executive Director. “The fact that the Foundation expressed its confidence and trust in LACC through a gift of this size is monumental and a well-deserved honor for our LACC community, and especially for our Board of Directors and staff team. This funding will allow us to build capacity within our organization to help sustain LACC’s continued growth, positively impacting even more youth through our transformative choral music education program.”

Perenchio Foundation CEO Stephania Ramirez states, “Permanence in the arts is not an accident. It is the result of organizations that have built real governance, real financial discipline, and real community trust — over years, sometimes decades — often without the kind of sustained investment that would make any of it easier. What we are investing in is not a program or a season. It is the infrastructure behind the work — the staffing, the systems, the reserves that allow an organization to absorb a hard year without losing what took twenty years to build. That is what multi-year unrestricted support makes possible, and it is the only kind of investment the Foundation believes is worth making.”

Established by the late A. Jerrold ‘Jerry’ Perenchio, the Perenchio Foundation believes the arts are essential to how communities see themselves, sustain themselves, and grow. The Foundation is committed to creating lasting impact in Los Angeles by investing in arts organizations that embody quality, accessibility, and permanence. Learn more at perenchiofoundation.org.

Los Angeles Children’s Chorus was formed in 1986, with just 50 young singers who were recruited for a local performance of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, a moving anti-war manifesto that prominently features the ethereal sound of a children’s choir to underscore the tragic impact of war on the young. Since that fateful engagement, LACC has never looked back, growing into a cultural powerhouse. LACC is now widely recognized as one of the world’s preeminent youth choirs, lauded as “hauntingly beautiful” (Los Angeles Times), and “one of the true artistic gems of Los Angeles” (Gustavo Dudamel). The Choir annually serves more than 500 children ages 6–18 from 40+ communities across Southern California through its eight choirs and two first experience classes, First Experiences in Singing and Next Experiences in Singing. More than 30% of choir members receive financial aid. Fernando Malvar-Ruiz is the Artistic Director.

For information on Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, please visit www.lachildrenschorus.org or call (626) 793-4231.

[photo credit: Boston Court Pasadena]

A rarely staged Shakespeare arrives on North Mentor Avenue in Ellen McLaughlin’s modern verse translation

The prince at the center of Shakespeare’s Pericles loses nearly everything to storms and shipwreck. Boston Court Pasadena has set the play inside an emergency evacuation center.

Margaret Shigeko Starbuck directs, and Boston Court presents the production in partnership with Play On Shakespeare, describing the staging as a re-conceptualization that uses movement and music. Previews of what the company bills as the West Coast premiere begin Thursday, August 20, at 70 North Mentor Avenue. The performance on Friday, August 21, at 7:30 p.m. is the second of six previews, ahead of the August 29 opening, and the run continues through September 27, 2026.

Randolph Thompson plays Pericles. Joel Swetow, making his Boston Court debut, plays Gower; Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson plays Marina; and Nicole Javier, a faculty member at Pasadena City College, plays Thaisa. The ensemble also includes Julanne Chidi Hill, Desirée Mee Jung, Adam J. Smith, Alexander Matos, Jamie Gallo and Rio Rasch, several in multiple roles.

John Ballinger is sound designer, composer and music director, and Estela Garcia is movement director. Michelle Joo designed the set, Nala Zinngrabe the costumes and Pablo Santiago the lighting.

The running time is approximately two hours and 15 minutes, including one intermission. The company recommends the play for ages 13 and up, and advises that it contains references to incest, threats of sexual violence and depictions of human trafficking.

Boston Court credits the City of Pasadena, the Pasadena Community Foundation, the David Lee Foundation, the Hitz Foundation and Play On Shakespeare with supporting the production.

The company offers $10 Community Access Tickets, facility fees included, for every live theatre performance except opening night and closing weekend, and says previews typically offer the best availability for them. At least four are held for each performance, first-come, first-served. Student tickets are $25. Rush tickets for high school students are free at the box office an hour before curtain, subject to availability, and are also withheld from opening nights and closing weekends. Groups of eight or more may arrange discounts in advance.

The run includes an ASL-interpreted performance on Friday, September 4, and six post-show discussions the company calls Illuminations, on August 30 and September 4, 6, 12, 13 and 20. Accessible seating is available in both of Boston Court’s performance spaces, assisted listening devices are free, and the restrooms are wheelchair accessible.

The Friday, August 21 performance is at Boston Court Pasadena, 70 North Mentor Avenue, Pasadena, California 91106, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are listed at $25 to $82 on the Playhouse Village Association calendar. Boston Court’s ticket policies add a $5 ticketing fee and a $2 facility fee per ticket. Parking is free in the theater’s lot behind the building, with the driveway entrance on the north side, and the lot opens two hours before curtain. Metro riders should get off at the Lake station, cross south of the freeway, go east one block to Mentor Avenue and walk south three blocks. The lobby opens an hour before curtain, and the building is cashless.

The script is still changing, according to the company. Even the running time may not hold.

NEED TO KNOW

Pericles plays at Boston Court Pasadena from Thursday, August 20 through Sunday, September 27, 2026, with the second of six preview performances on Friday, August 21, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are listed at $25 to $82 on the Playhouse Village Association calendar, with a $5 ticketing fee and a $2 facility fee added per ticket under Boston Court’s policies; $10 Community Access Tickets, facility fees included, are held for every performance except opening night and closing weekend, at least four per performance, first-come, first-served, student tickets are $25, and rush tickets for high school students are free at the box office an hour before curtain, subject to availability. The venue is Boston Court Pasadena, 70 North Mentor Avenue, Pasadena, California 91106. Parking is free in the theater’s own lot behind the building, with the driveway entrance on the north side; the lot opens two hours before curtain, street parking is available along Mentor Avenue, and a paid garage sits across the street. For more, call 626.683.6801 or visit bostoncourtpasadena.org/events/pericles.

Links

• Tickets: https://ci.ovationtix.com/112/production/1252158
• Production page: https://bostoncourtpasadena.org/events/pericles/
• Parking, access and ticket policies: https://bostoncourtpasadena.org/visit/

Sierra Madre Playhouse will show the 2024 animated film Hola Frida! on September 12 for $15, and reviewers say the polio scenes may unsettle the youngest viewers

Long before the self-portraits, Frida Kahlo was a girl in Coyoacán who climbed trees, befriended a neighborhood dog, and then got polio.

That girl is the whole subject of Hola Frida!, an 82-minute animated feature coming to the Sierra Madre Playhouse on Saturday, September 12, at 4:00 p.m. Tickets are $15. The film stops well before the bus crash and the paintings that made Kahlo famous.

Sierra Madre is a separate incorporated city on Pasadena’s eastern edge, and the Playhouse says its seasons draw audiences from Sierra Madre, Pasadena, Altadena, Arcadia and across Greater Los Angeles. Riders can reach it from the Metro A Line’s Sierra Madre Villa Station by transferring to the Metro 268 bus.

Karine Vézina and André Kadi directed the 2024 film, adapted from Frida, c’est moi, the picture book by Sophie Faucher with illustrations by Cara Carmina. The story follows Kahlo through illness and physical limitation and turns on how she uses imagination and art to reclaim her voice and her body, according to the Playhouse. It moves through her discovery of color, nature and self-expression, and its themes are difference, creativity and hope.

The New York International Children’s Film Festival has written that “this biopic frames freedom, feminism, and the zeitgeist of 20th century Mexico” through the eyes of a young girl. 

Sierra Madre Playhouse, which announced the screening August 10, bills the film as family-friendly and suitable for viewers 7 and up. The children’s film festival sets the recommendation at 6 and up.

The film dramatizes Kahlo’s childhood polio. Common Sense Media’s advisory cites “a few scary moments when young Frida is very ill with polio”, including a scene in which the girl meets a figure of Death. The film carries no MPA rating, according to the parents’ guide Kids-In-Mind. 

Two versions circulate. Variety reported of the American theatrical release that “The film hits theaters in a Spanglish dub” — mostly English, with Spanish phrases retained — while the festival run used a Spanish-language track. 

The screening is one of 90 programs in the Playhouse’s 2026 season, which the organization calls Small Stage, Big World and which spans theater, music, dance, film, comedy and family programming. In a statement issued with the season announcement, Artistic and Executive Director Matthew Cook said audiences crave both belonging and discovery, “Sierra Madre Playhouse offers both.” 

The 99-seat theater has presented entertainment for more than a century in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, behind a movie-house façade and its original marquee. County records date the building to 1910, when it opened as a furniture store. It became a movie house in 1924, and Sierra Madre designated it a Historic Landmark in 2024.

Hola Frida! screens at 87 West Sierra Madre Boulevard, Sierra Madre, CA 91024. Doors open one hour before the performance, and the box office opens 30 minutes before curtain. Free public lots sit behind the theater and along Sierra Madre Boulevard, and close at midnight. Tickets are available at sierramadreplayhouse.org or by calling (626) 355-4318 and pressing 2, which is also the line for arranging wheelchair-accessible seating. Walk-up sales are accepted subject to availability. Teenagers 13 to 19 with a TeenTix pass pay $5. Children under 3 may sit on a lap without a ticket.

The film ends before any of it — before the bus, before the world learned her face. In Coyoacán, the girl is still climbing trees.

NEED TO KNOW

Sierra Madre Playhouse screens Hola Frida!, the 2024 animated feature about Frida Kahlo’s childhood, on Saturday, September 12, 2026, at 4:00 p.m. Admission is $15, with $5 tickets for teenagers ages 13 to 19 holding a TeenTix pass; children under 3 may sit on a lap without a ticket, and walk-up sales are accepted subject to availability. The screening takes place at the Sierra Madre Playhouse, 87 West Sierra Madre Boulevard, Sierra Madre, CA 91024. Parking is free in the public lots behind the theater and along Sierra Madre Boulevard, which close at midnight, and on surrounding streets; limited metered spaces are available near Baldwin Avenue. Doors open one hour before the performance and the box office opens 30 minutes before curtain. For more, call (626) 355-4318 or visit sierramadreplayhouse.org.

TICKET LINK: https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?show=306831
EVENT PAGE: https://www.sierramadreplayhouse.org/event/frida2026

The Blue Breeze Band brings Motown and soul to Loma Alta Park on Saturday, the sixth of seven shows this season

Nearly 15 months after Loma Alta Park reopened, its lower lawn fills again on Saturday night — this time with folding chairs and Motown.

The Blue Breeze Band plays at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, August 15, covering Motown, R&B, soul, funk, jazz and blues. It is the sixth of seven free shows the Rotary Club of Altadena is staging this summer with Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation, and the 29th season of a series that began in 1997.

One Saturday remains after this one. The season opened July 11 with Dream Like Taylor, a Taylor Swift tribute, then ran through Past Action Heroes, the all-female multicultural salsa band Las Chikas, the Beatles tribute Britain’s Finest and the steel drum reggae and soca band Upstream. Stevie Nicks Illusion closes it August 22.

The series has missed exactly one summer, 2020, when COVID-19 canceled it. It did not miss the summer after the Eaton Fire.

The concerts have not always been held here. They moved to Loma Alta after the January 2025 fire damaged Farnsworth Park, the series’ longtime home, according to Los Angeles County Parks. This is the second summer at the new location.

Loma Alta Park closed after the fire and reopened on May 17, 2025, following a $3.4 million renovation, the county Department of Parks and Recreation said. The county has called it the first of Altadena’s county parks to reopen after the fire, and said it compressed a rebuild that would normally take about 18 months into roughly two. The work added two Dodgers Dreamfields, a gymnasium renovated by the LA Clippers Foundation, a satellite senior center and a technology center.

“Loma Alta Park is a vital gathering place where our community can come together, especially in times of healing,” said Kathryn Barger, chair of the county Board of Supervisors, at the reopening.

For the club, the point is not only the music. “Our Rotary Club hopes to help continue building community from those that are displaced and those that are still just returning,” said Mark Mariscal, the club’s executive secretary and a fire survivor.

In announcing the 2026 lineup, the Rotary Club said it is “incredibly grateful” to Barger and the county Parks and Recreation Department for support that has kept the series going as Altadena recovers. Sponsors include the California Community Foundation, MonteCedro, Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts, Toyota Pasadena and Barger’s office, according to the club’s announcement.

Admission is free, and the Rotary Club sells beer and wine at all seven shows. The concert takes place on the lower lawn at 3330 North Lincoln Avenue, Altadena. The park’s number is (626) 398-5451, and information on the series is at altadenarotary.org.

Disaster-recovery agencies have wound down services at the community center; a free survivors’ workshop meets there Monday afternoon

Altadena wildfire survivors will spend Monday afternoon writing about what the Eaton Fire took from them, in a free community writing group at the Altadena Community Center.

The session, the Altadena Wildfire Survivor Community Writing Group, runs from 1 to 2:30 p.m. at 730 E. Altadena Drive. Participants write to timed prompts about places they valued, what they have lost and found, and how they will move forward, the organizer, Saved by a Story, said in its description of the program.

The group is free and open to all ages, but seating is limited. An RSVP does not hold a seat, the organizer said. Seating opens 15 minutes early, and no one is admitted once the session starts.

Shermaine Barlaan facilitates. She was born in Pasadena and lost her own home in the Eaton Fire, and she leads the organization’s community writing groups as a UCLA Extension Writing Program and VONA scholar, according to her biography on the organization’s site.

Monday’s meeting is the latest in a recurring series at the center. An earlier session met June 10 in the center’s Community Room, and registration for it had closed by the date of the event, a co-listing by the Altadena Library District shows.

The community center sits in unincorporated Altadena, on county ground rather than in City of Pasadena jurisdiction. The Los Angeles County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs took the building over on Jan. 1, 2025, and calls it a hub for county and community events. The Eaton Fire damaged the center, which reopened in June after renovation and recovery work, the office of Supervisor Kathryn Barger said.

Saved by a Story appears on the California Community Foundation’s Wildfire Recovery Fund grantee list, published May 1, 2026, as a recipient for wildfire survivor writing workshops and storytelling salons serving the Palisades and the Altadena and Eaton fire areas. The list does not state an award amount.

Session details are posted at https://www.savedbyastory.com/all-events.

NEED TO KNOW

The Altadena Wildfire Survivor Community Writing Group meets Monday, August 10, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Altadena Community Center, 730 East Altadena Drive, Altadena, CA 91001. The program is free and open to participants of all ages, and Shermaine Barlaan facilitates. Doors open at 12:45 p.m. Seating is limited and first come, first served, an RSVP does not guarantee admission, and late entry is not permitted once the session begins. Participants are asked to bring a notebook and a pen. For more, call (626) 398-6174 or visit savedbyastory.com, where the remaining 2026 and 2027 dates are posted. To reserve a spot, register through Eventbrite.

Hollywood or Bust, Paramount Pictures/Photofest, © Paramount Pictures

Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis made their last film together in 1956; the Norton Simon shows it Saturday in a four-film series marking the highway’s centennial

The 1956 road comedy screening at the Norton Simon Museum on Saturday, August 8, was very nearly called Route 66.

It reached theaters as Hollywood or Bust, but Route 66 was its working title, according to Turner Classic Movies. The picture is the second of four in On Route 66, a series the museum scheduled across August to mark the highway’s 100th year. The screenings happen at 411 West Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, the street that carries Route 66 through the city, according to Visit Pasadena, the city’s convention and visitors bureau.

Frank Tashlin directed. Dean Martin plays Steve Wiley, a gambler on the run from a debt, and Jerry Lewis plays Malcolm Smith, a film fanatic trying to meet the actress Anita Ekberg. They drive to California with Smith’s Great Dane, Mr. Bascom, and pick up a singer, Terry Roberts, played by Pat Crowley.

It was the last picture Martin and Lewis made together. The two had stopped speaking to each other during production except in character, and the act had broken up before the film reached theaters, according to accounts cited by Turner Classic Movies.

Joe Petricca introduces each screening. The museum describes him as a filmmaker, educator and the organizer of the series. He is an adjunct professor of film and graduate film at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena and has curated a number of film series for Norton Simon, according to the college.

Each of the four films features the California section of the highway, and the museum describes them as a range of journeys along the road between Los Angeles and Chicago, from a grueling migration to radical soul searching. The series opened August 1 with Easy Rider (1969), rated R, which contains depictions of drug use, sex and violence, according to the museum. The Grapes of Wrath (1940), not rated, follows August 15, and Cars (2006), rated G, closes the series August 22. Hollywood or Bust is also unrated.

Route 66 was established in 1926 and ran from Chicago to Santa Monica, according to Visit Pasadena. Colorado Boulevard traces its origins to 1876 at Fair Oaks Avenue, the bureau says, making 2026 the road’s centennial and the street’s 150th year at once.

Doors to the Norton Simon Theater open at 4:00 p.m., and the film runs from 4:30 p.m. to 6:25 p.m. Seating is first come, first served, and the museum takes no reservations. The screening is free with museum admission — $20 for adults, $15 for seniors ages 62 and above, and free for students with valid identification, visitors 18 and under, and members. Parking in the museum lot is free. Pasadena Transit lines 10 and 33 and Metro line 180 stop in front of the building. The theater has two wheelchair spaces, and assisted listening devices are available; ASL interpretation can be requested from the Tours and Education department at least two weeks in advance. Call (626) 449-6840 or visit nortonsimon.org.

The partnership did not survive the picture. The title they dropped is the reason it is playing at all.

NEED TO KNOW

The Norton Simon Museum screens Hollywood or Bust (1956), not rated, as part of its film series On Route 66 on Saturday, August 8, 2026. Doors to the Norton Simon Theater open at 4:00 p.m., and the film runs from 4:30 p.m. to 6:25 p.m., with an introduction by Joe Petricca. The screening is free with museum admission, which is $20 for adults, $15 for seniors ages 62 and above, and free for students with valid identification, visitors 18 and under, and museum members; seating is first come, first served, and the museum takes no reservations. The museum is at 411 West Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91105. Parking in the museum lot is free, with limited free parking on adjacent streets; Pasadena Transit lines 10 and 33 and Metro line 180 stop in front of the building, and Memorial Park Station on the Metro A Line, at 125 East Holly Street at Arroyo Parkway, is the nearest rail stop. For more, call (626) 449-6840 or visit nortonsimon.org.

KATSEYE tops an 11-act bill on August 8, in a fiscal year when the Rose Bowl expects eight music festival dates in the Arroyo

Head in the Clouds took two days off the Brookside golf course last year and drew more than 75,000 people, according to published reports. This Saturday it takes one.

Head in the Clouds: LA 2026, the music and arts festival produced by 88rising and Goldenvoice, returns to Brookside at the Rose Bowl on Saturday, August 8, in a one-day format, with KATSEYE headlining a bill of Asian and Asian-diaspora artists. For Pasadena, the arithmetic of that day is set by ordinance. Under Chapter 3.32 of the Municipal Code, the Arroyo Seco Public Lands Ordinance, each festival day counts as one “displacement event” — any gathering of 20,000 or more, large enough that parking for it pushes ordinary recreation out of the Central Arroyo.

The city permits 25 such events in a fiscal year without additional City Council findings. The Rose Bowl Operating Company’s draft Fiscal Year 2027 budget, presented to the Pasadena Finance Committee in May, anticipates exactly that many: 17 stadium events and eight music festival dates. The fiscal year runs from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027. Steve Haderlein, the operating company’s president, told city officials during the May budget hearings that he considered the plan “optimistic” but achievable. The Goldenvoice festival contract is in its fifth year of seven, according to the budget presentation.

The ordinance itself states that the city seeks a balance between use of the Rose Bowl and the impact of that use on surrounding residential areas.

KATSEYE, the group formed under the HYBE x Geffen Records joint venture, is making its first Head in the Clouds appearance, according to a press release from the organizers. The group has performed as five members — Daniela Avanzini, Lara Raj, Megan Skiendiel, Sophia Laforteza and Yoonchae Jeong — since February, when founding member Manon Bannerman began a temporary hiatus. In April, HYBE told The Korea Herald that “Manon remains on hiatus.” The rest of the bill is XG, Dabin.kr, Rich Brian, UMI, LNGSHOT, KiiiKiii, Gia Fu, Tiffany Day, Warren Hue and no na. The same release says Dabin.kr, the South Korean rapper formerly known as DPR LIVE, will perform in the United States for the first time under his current name, and that the festival will include a curated lineup of Asian food vendors from across the diaspora.

The venue opens at 1:00 p.m. and the curfew is 11:00 p.m. The event is all ages and runs rain or shine, and there is no re-entry once attendees are inside. Children 5 and under enter free with a ticketed adult. The 1999 CLUB lounge bar is 21 and over, and a physical government-issued photo ID is required — the festival will not accept school IDs, expired IDs, photocopies or digital IDs. The grounds are cashless.

The festival grounds are at 1001 Rose Bowl Drive, Pasadena, CA 91103. Parking lots open at 11:00 a.m. General parking is $45 in advance and preferred parking is $95, with day-of pricing available on site if the lots have not sold out. A free shuttle runs continuously between the Parsons Parking Lot in Old Town Pasadena and Rose Bowl Lot B; parking at Parsons is $20 on the day of the show, credit cards only. Metro riders can take the A Line to Memorial Park Station, then walk west on Holly Street past Fair Oaks Avenue to the shuttles on the far side of the Parsons lot. Rideshare pickup and drop-off is in Lot H, and bicycle parking is in the north portion of Lot I. No overnight parking, recreational vehicles, tailgating or camping are permitted.

The festival’s accessibility page describes the ground underfoot plainly: the terrain is primarily grass with gravel pathways, and some stretches carry a slight incline. An Accessibility Services Hub inside the grounds issues accessibility wristbands and registers service animals, with no advance registration required. Accessible parking is in Lot D and requires both a valid Disabled Person Parking placard and a general parking pass. The festival does not rent wheelchairs or scooters. Accessibility questions go to adafestivals@goldenvoice.com; the screen-reader assistance line is (888) 226-0076.

As of August 2, passes were listed at $199 for general admission, $349 for VIP and $499 for the 1999 CLUB, sold through AXS at la.hitcfestival.com. Students can claim a 20% discount with a college or university email address. At the March announcement, the organizers’ press release listed those tiers at $179, $329 and $479, with all prices including service fees and taxes.

Brookside is still a golf course under all of it — grass, gravel, fairways that tilt. By 11:00 p.m. Saturday, the sound has to stop.

NEED TO KNOW

Head in the Clouds: LA 2026 takes place Saturday, August 8, 2026, at Brookside at the Rose Bowl, 1001 Rose Bowl Drive, Pasadena, CA 91103. The venue opens at 1:00 p.m. and the curfew is 11:00 p.m. The event is ticketed and all ages, and it runs rain or shine with no re-entry. As of August 2, general admission passes were listed at $199, VIP at $349 and 1999 CLUB at $499, sold through AXS; students can claim a 20% discount using a college or university email address, and children 5 and under enter free with a ticketed adult. Parking lots open at 11:00 a.m., with general parking at $45 and preferred parking at $95 in advance and day-of pricing on site if lots have not sold out; a free shuttle runs continuously from the Parsons Parking Lot in Old Town Pasadena, where day-of parking is $20, credit cards only. Metro riders can take the A Line to Memorial Park Station and walk west on Holly Street past Fair Oaks Avenue to the shuttle. Accessible parking is in Lot D and requires a valid Disabled Person Parking placard along with a general parking pass. The Rose Bowl’s general line is (626) 577-3100, and the festival’s accessibility line is (888) 226-0076, which organizers note is not a ticketing number. Event details are at https://la.hitcfestival.com/ and https://la.hitcfestival.com/info/.

[Based on Altadena Music Theatre artwork]

Nineteen months after the Eaton Fire destroyed its Farnsworth Park home, the company returns tonight at a temporary outdoor venue at Mountain View Mausoleum

Altadena Music Theatre had to build a stage before it could put on a show. It opens “Grease” on that stage tonight.

The production is the company’s first fully staged musical since the January 2025 Eaton Fire destroyed the Charles S. Farnsworth Park Amphitheatre, where it had performed. Rather than wait for a permanent venue, the nonprofit assembled a temporary outdoor theater with custom staging and seating on the grounds of Mountain View Mausoleum, at 2300 North Marengo Avenue in Altadena — a little more than a mile from where the amphitheater stood.

Curtain is 8:00 p.m. Performances run Thursdays through Sundays until Sunday, August 16, eight in all.

“Grease” has a book, music and lyrics by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. Oliver Azcarate directs, with musical direction by Chris Wade and choreography by Melissa Schade. Eric Stanton Betts plays Danny Zuko and Ruby Lewis plays Sandy. Bryce Ryness plays Vince Fontaine, and Cheyenne Wells makes her company debut as Marty. Eighteen more performers fill out the ensemble.

Board members, performers, designers and volunteers spent several weeks turning open ground into a working theater, the company said.

“What has emerged is more than a performance venue,” said Sarah Azcarate, the company’s founder and producing artistic director.

Ruby Lewis, who is on the creative team as well as in the cast, told Local News Pasadena that “Altadena Music Theatre is coming back like a phoenix rising.”

The fire that took the amphitheater began the evening of January 7, 2025, burned 14,021 acres and killed 19 people, Los Angeles County reported. The company said it lost sets, costumes, props and equipment, along with the Altadena home of Sarah Azcarate and her husband, Oliver.

Altadena Music Theatre is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2020, according to the company, and staged “Hair” in 2022, “Cabaret” in 2023 and “Guys and Dolls” in 2024. Warner Bros. Discovery is sponsoring the 2026 season. “Little Shop of Horrors” follows September 3 through 13.

Single tickets range from $40 to $107, and season passes covering both productions range from $66 to $120, the company said. Seating is outdoors, and audiences may bring their own food. Outside alcohol is not permitted; beer and wine are sold on site to patrons 21 and older. Only service animals are allowed inside the theater. If a performance is called off before an hour of playing time, including scheduled intermissions, the ticket becomes a rain check good for any remaining performance in the season or for a refund, through September 13.

At Farnsworth Park, two of three phases of the rebuild are fully funded, with $250,000 from the Pasadena Rotary Club and $150,000 from the Los Angeles Philharmonic earmarked for the amphitheater, as of November 2025. Until that work is finished, the company performs on ground it does not own.

NEED TO KNOW

Altadena Music Theatre presents “Grease,” opening Thursday, August 6, and continuing Thursdays through Sundays until Sunday, August 16. Curtain is 8:00 p.m. Single tickets run $40 to $107; season passes covering both “Grease” and September’s “Little Shop of Horrors” run $66 to $120. Performances are at the company’s temporary outdoor theater on the grounds of Mountain View Mausoleum, 2300 North Marengo Avenue, Altadena, CA 91001. Street parking is free around the grounds and in the surrounding neighborhood, and parking on Marengo Avenue is permitted for the length of a performance. For more, call (626) 794-7133, email altadenamusictheatre@gmail.com, or visit altadenamusictheatre.com.

Ticket link (“Grease”): https://ci.ovationtix.com/37054/production/1277727
Season pass link: https://ci.ovationtix.com/37054/store/packages
Press contact: Ken Werther Publicity, (323) 845-9781, kenwertherpr@gmail.com