Things to do in L.A. this weekend

Netflix’s stand-up specials keep us cackling at home, but the streaming service’s ambitious comedy festival is nothing to laugh at. For its second iteration, Netflix is a Joke Fest is here through May 12 with more than 500 shows at 35-plus venues with sets from Ali Wong, Taylor Tomlinson, Trevor Noah and literally hundreds of others (we’ve highlighted 10 of the most unique offerings to help narrow things down).

Form a gallery in the sky made entirely of kites during this community festival from Clockshop and California State Parks. Held in honor of the communities surrounding L.A. State Historic Park, the free fest features flying demonstrations, art workshops and musical performances.

It’s more than just the low clearance: This exhibition at the Petersen explores the custom paint, engraving, upholstery and, of course, the gravity-defying suspension of the lowrider scene. In addition to iconic cars, the exhibit spotlights influential artists in the Chicano lowrider art scene.

The summertime screening series returns for the season, first with screenings at L.A. State Historic Park (Mamma Mia! on May 10 and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers on May 17) and the Rose Bowl (Almost Famous on May 25), and then back at Hollywood Forever Cemetery toward the end of the month.

One of the best made-in-America shopping events in the country, the annual Unique market features clothes, accessories and art pieces from a number of quality handmade brands. Check out local products and rub elbows with the different designers and artists showcasing their work. Catch a spring show at the California Market Center with 160 brands, designers and artists, as well as free drinks and DIY activities.

For one summer in 1987, a carnival popped up in Germany with traditional rides adorned with artwork by Salvador Dalí, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, David Hockney, Sonia Delaunay and a couple dozen others. And then… it kind of just vanished, sent off into storage for decades. But now—only through the end of the week—Luna Luna has been revived in L.A., restored and reassembled in a soundstage in Boyle Heights.

Cake on the eyeliner, cry it off and then dance away the tears at the return of this 1980s-to-aughts goth, new wave and punk fest with Duran Duran, Interpol, Blondie, Simple Minds, Placebo, Soft Cell, Adam Ant, Gary Numan and more. The one-day-only event features dozens of alt obsessions on the golf course next to the Rose Bowl, where it once again returns.

You feed them, bathe them, clean up after them and plop their poop into little plastic bags—we’re talking about dogs, of course. To toast to all of the fur mamas out there, Bubbles Dog Rescue is hosting a dog-friendly event at Rock & Brews’ Redondo location where you can get matching temporary rock & roll-themed tattoos, pose for photo ops and enter a raffle. The brewery will also double as an adoption center for the event, and proceeds from food and drink sales will benefit Bubbles Dog Rescue (plus, your pup will get a complimentary treat if you order an entree).

See a free salsa concert every second Friday of the summer during this series at LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes. This year’s lineup includes Rumbankete, Gabrielito y La Verdad, Son Mayor, Son Miron and Club Mambi—all featuring Super DJ Robby.

The Venice Artwalk returns for its 45th year to benefit the Venice Family Clinic with an auction and a free opportunity to glimpse the Venice and wider L.A. art scene. From May 10 to 19, pop into 910 Abbot Kinney to see pieces from Ed Ruscha, Larry Bell, Ed Moses, Alison Saar, Kenny Scharf, Patrisse Cullors, Sayre Gomez and more.

Roving summer-inspired party series All Day I Dream comes courtesy of London house master Lee Burridge but originated on a Brooklyn rooftop. Burridge headlines this show at DTLA’s Pershing Square with support from ADID regulars Christian Löffler, Tim Green and Sinca. Expect no shortage of beautiful, melancholic rhythms.

First he’s putting on a comedy show to combat the climate crisis, and then the next night he’s hosting a whisky tasting? Well, Nick Offerman, you’ve surely won us over. Venture over to Venice on May 10 for an unveiling of the actor and comedian’s new Scotch whisky collab with Lagavulin. You’ll have a chance (assuming you’re at least 21, obviously) to sip on the new spirit, catch a debut that’s advertised as a “multisensory” installation full of “tropical delights” “Scottish charm” and meet Offerman himself. Though the event is open to the public, you’ll need to request a spot in order to attend.

On the morning of 9/11, nearly 7,000 airline passengers of various nationalities, faiths and temperaments were diverted to Gander, Newfoundland. The story of the Canadians and the frightened travelers they fed, housed and comforted is the subject of this uplifting, joy-filled 2013 musical, with Irish-influenced score by Irene Sankoff and David Hein, directed by Christopher Ashley and performed by 12 actors playing dozens of the memorable people involved.

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.

Walk through a pavilion of fluttering butterflies and peep a chamber with pupae and caterpillars at South Coast Botanic Garden’s seasonal exhibition. For an extra $6, you can pick up a flower vial or ring filled with nectar to attract and feed butterflies.

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 summer.

L.A. has changed immeasurably since 1921, when this event was first staged as an agricultural fair. However, the perennially popular event still has farm-friendly appeal (livestock beauty contests, local produce) alongside the more modern acrobats, wine tastings, exhibitions and concerts.

RECOMMENDED: A guide to the L.A. County Fair

No, the Academy Museum isn’t staying open past midnight—but it is celebrating films that have typically screened then. To complement the museum’s John Waters exhibition and Pink Flamingos’ place as a late-night mainstay, it’ll be screening some cult favorites this April and May, including Eraserhead, Up in Smoke, Donnie Darko and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

The hour stands before another springtime, and the Renaissance Pleasure Faire is nigh. Good mistresses and masters, prepareth thy schedules and costumes for the return of the oldest Ren Faire in the country, a spectacle that cov’reth 20 Irwindale acres with Elizabethan libations and amusement: fully armored joust tournaments and tea parties with the Queen along with beguiling stage acts, rides, games, delicious edibles and ales abound. The fesitivies will transpire each weekend at the Santa Fe Dam Recreational Area; procureth day or season passes in advance by visiting ye olde online box office. And no, we can’t stop talking like this.

When is the Renaissance Pleasure Faire near Los Angeles?

The event takes place Saturdays and Sundays (10am–7pm) from April 6 to May 19, 2024 at the Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area in Irwindale.

How much are tickets?

Tickets cost $42 for adults, $37 for seniors (62+) and those with military IDs, $21 for kids ages 5 to 15 and free for kids 4 and under. A season pass costs $225. Parking is $12, with a VIP option available for $25.

Nature lovers rejoice! Spend a day at the Natural History Museum’s Butterfly Pavilion, which will open from March 17 through August 25 with up to 30 butterfly and moth species and an assortment of California plants. The seasonal outdoor exhibit allows for adults and children alike to witness nature up close—we’re talking having bufferlies take flight and land on your arms or shoulders. Prime time for these unique butterfly flight experiences are between 10 and 11am each morning.

The masters of alfresco rooftop movie viewing have returned for another season of screenings in Downtown L.A., with nearly-nightly showings this spring.

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 Basket Taco Co, Battambong Barbecue and Taste of the Pacific.

Let the wild rumpus start at this celebration of beloved children’s author and illustrator Maurice Sendak. The Skirball Cultural Center will be displaying more than 150 sketches, storyboards and paintings from the Where the Wild Things Are creator.

This major Ed Ruscha retrospective includes his meticulous photos of L.A. streets and a reconstruction of his Chocolate Room (which, yes, is a room made out sheets upon sheets of chocolate).

Did this past year’s Basquiat exhibition in DTLA leave you wanting more? Head to Beverly Hills where Gagosian will be displaying 50 rarely loaned Jean-Michel Basquiat pieces that were created in L.A. during the iconic artist’s time spent at his Venice studio between 1982 and 1984.

You might’ve noticed Johnson’s beautifully carved and gilded redwood organ screen on recent visits to the Huntington. Now, for the first time in four decades, you can see it paired with other pieces he created for the California School for the Blind in Berkeley, California—with 41 works in total on display.

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.

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.

Former HiFi space Gabba Gallery ushers in its new DTLA home with this retrospective of counterculture illustrator EMEK, famous for his posters for the likes of Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, Nine Inch Nails and Neil Young, as well as the annual Coachella poster.

See works from seven contemporary artists (Eliseo Art Silva, Allison Hueman, Anthony Francisco, Maryrose Cobarrubias Mendoza, Christine Morla, Maria Villote and Junn Roca) who address issues related to Filipino culture and the Filipino-American experience during this exhibition at the Forest Lawn Museum.

See early works in assemblage, installation, happenings and conceptual artmaking at this examination of art from the decades that followed the Korean War, the first such exhibition in North America to focus on this period.

What does living in L.A. look like? It’s a wildly different picture depending on each Angeleno’s point of view, and so to celebrate that diversity of perspectives, Hollywood gallery Jeffrey Deitch will display pieces from a dozen local artists that delve into underground economies, landscapes, surveillance, backyard hangouts and public transit, among other topics.

Hollywood’s Japan House has tapped artist Sebastian Masuda to dive into the roots of all things cute and colorful with this exhibition on Japanese kawaii culture. The free show includes multiple pieces and installations from Masuda.

See 1930s-to-50s concept cars plus artwork from Ed Ruscha, Andy Warhol and David Hockney at this Petersen exhibition.

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.

No Andy Serkis, no problems for Wes Ball’s thoughtful ape adventure.

Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt share a ton of goofy chemistry in this nitrous pull of an action-comedy.

Alex Garland’s brutal, dystopian vision of America at war with itself is visceral but vague.

Eschewing gimmicky callbacks, this horror prequel is thoughtful and engaging—but still unsettling.

Dev Patel conceives, directs, produces, punches, stabs and brawls his way through this brash and frequently brilliant action flick.