The Ford may be to The Bowl as a quickie in the elevator is to a rose-petal trail to a big…read morehoneymoon suite bed. The "Cinderella" of venues, it takes the grand, outdoor setting of the Bowl (concrete Jerusalem gates carved into the Hollywood hills) and the intimacy of a backyard party. With 1200 seats (opposed to 17500), you're always under 100 feet from the stage. The seats being steeply raked means you are closer to the stage than the Greek. (The Theater, I mean, not loud, hairy Niko guy next to you). And being tucked into a natural canyon makes the acoustics extra crispy, which made Erasure (10 years ago today) one of my favorite concerts. Side note: I found the 3 tickets on ebay for 99 cents, something that pissed off the guy next to me who paid $200. He Loved to Hate Me. He called me "Biggie Fries" all night, referencing Wendy's Value Meal. Built in 1920 by Christine Wetherill Stevenson, a wealthy heiress who wanted to build a space for her play about he life of Christ "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Calvary". No, it was "Pilgrimage Play" It burnt down in 1929 but rebuilt in 1931 to look like stone, making it feel like an ancient, rediscovered space. Anyway, it only hosted Christ plays (I would have called it "Nailed iT!") until the 1964 separation of church and state opened the venue to all arts. It was named after the county supervisor John Anson Ford, who was a champion of the arts. In the late 80's it was the "West Coast CBGB", hosting Ramones, Social D, X, Chili Peppers and Jane's Addiction. If you need more bands, just use your first three Wordle guesses: Tacos Marry Happy opened for Radio Caulk Barfy. It unveiled a $80 million renovation in 2017, so if it was gorgeous in 2006, I am sure it is Gorgeouser now. In 2019, the LA Phil took over, so now it is the little sister of the Bowl and Disney Concert Hall. In 2020, it had its centennial, marking 100 years since Stevenson first staged a Christ play in that canyon. To celebrate, the partygoers turned wine into pee.

Sometimes, I forget how much entertainment is available in LA, from theaters to museums to outdoor…read moreexcursions and more. I had previously seen advertisements for The Ford LA through various outlets, but I am frequently reminded of my introversion and often avoid driving through LA traffic. However, my wife wanted to check out the The Natural World of Studio Ghibli, and what a night it was! We have seen nearly all of Miyazaki's creations, but this was our first time watching "Howl's Moving Castle" in an outdoor theater. It was lovely! Fresh air, a few butterflies flying across the projector, stars in the night sky, and the iconic backdrop were some highlights to mention. The Ford is as fun as advertised, and I've already begun recommending it to my friends. This place has history, and you can feel it! Additionally, there isn't a bad seat in the house! We sat in Row P, and when I arrived, I took it all in. There's certainly a bit of magic here. The only negative is the parking. It's stacked parking, so you may end up waiting on other visitors to get to their cars before you can even think about moving. Otherwise, we already have plans to return to The Ford Theater!

The food was amazing. Such a cool vibe. It was a beautiful sunny day and everyone was in a great…read moremood. These was tons of free stuff and the lines moved pretty quickly. We came hungry and it was a good thing. Cause we are leaving stuffed.

3 stars I really…read morethought long and hard about the star rating on this, but ultimately decided to go with 3 stars b/c the pros and cons were about the same. This was my experience: Pros: free and organized parking; easy and fast check-in process; organized and clean vendor areas; polite event staff and friendly vendor staff; plenty of clean seating; organized restroom and water refill stations; decent music Cons: LONG lines; LONG waiting times for food after purchase; archaic and slow card systems; no paper receipts; not enough shade/umbrellas; not enough entertainment How it works: this event seems to only be available for Chase cardholders. The entry fee is $25 per person and the type of Chase card determines the benefits you get. I believe Reserve gets to use the lounge and purchase the all-you-can-eeeeeats band along with alcohol tasting (and fast pass??). For Sapphire and below, you can redeem the $10 cashback on a qualifying purchase at a vendor, but it needs to be added before you make any purchase. I believe it is $10 per Chase card as long as you see it on the website/app. The tech: these card machines must be from the early 2000s b/c it took forever to pay the vendor, no one could see the screen properly b/c it was so dim, and, if I wanted a receipt, it had to go through email. Typing in the email needed to be repeated every single time I paid for the food. Just bring back paper receipts! 1/5 stars Miya Miya: I hear their chicken schwarmas are viral, but I thought they were just ok to me. I can definitely taste the Jordan difference, but it was very salty to me. At $12, I don't think it's much to write home about. Wait time was between 30-45 minutes. 3/5 stars Henrietta: I got the Chicken Milanese ($13) and it was ok. I had to leave out the red cabbage b/c it was quite bitter tasting. Sadly, I think Porto's does a better chicken milanese. Wait time was about 5-7 minutes. 3/5 stars Giovanni's Tiramisu: We got the tiramisu and, I promise everyone who was there and didn't get it, that they weren't missing out. This has to be the worst tiramisu I have ever had. Coffee flavor was great. The cream was great. But it was frozen like a slushee frozen and kind of melted. At $14, it's not worth it. 1/5 stars. Freebies: La Croix was there giving out totes, caps, & sparkling water. Infatuation gave out totes or battery packs or a cap, but you have to subscribe to their newsletter. And, if you fill a "passport" with 3 stamps, you get a set of stickers when you turn it in...which is also meh...at least make it a pin or a tote. Entertainment: I think there was a panel or something inside the hangar, but I wasn't really paying attention. Music outside was great. There was on 1 area for photo ops, which was pretty meh. Chase had a little booth where you can match tiles and whoever wins gets free pins. I wish there was more to do. As much as I wanted to try other vendors, the thought of waiting 30+ minutes for food just didn't appeal to me and party, so we left early. This is my first time and last time at Eeeeeatscon.

The Montalbán Theater is a great venue on northern part of Hollywood offering niche and diverse…read morestage performances. Being Hollywood, commuting and dodging traffic to the theater is tiresome! Luckily, there is a venue parking adjacent so saved time to not circling the block. The interior carries a nice charm from golden years and seating are tight (less legroom). We can to support a traveling show - - and bring a HUGE Star Wars fan and dark humor -- this brusque prodigy of current events hits my funny vibes to the core! Thank you to The Montalbán theater for supporting small productions companies and up and coming artists!!

We have watched 2 great shows at The Montalban. Love the small, intimate, but full of character…read moretheatre. Staff is always friendly and extremely helpful. Love the themed drinks at the second floor bar. We saw The Empire Strips Back and now Batette Follies of 1939. Great view from any seat in the small theater. It's an old theater and as expected the seats are a little worn and not the most comfy but that doesn't stop you from enjoying the performances. A large, multi-level parking garage is available next door. Very convenient since we all know how hectic finding parking in LA can be.

10/4/25 Saturday We…read morearrived around 6:45 PM and stayed for about an hour. There were a lot of vendors, but only some of them served dumplings, so the event name is a little misleading. The $60 pass only gets you unlimited beer, not dumplings. Only tried one dumpling truck and it has mostly typical flavors we could get elsewhere. Not to mention it took one hour for us to get our food. Parking near the venue filled up quick, but there is another lot a short walking distance away with plenty of spots. However, the entrance and exit is the same spot and only allows one car to pass, so be careful. Free performance near the blossom hall and on the other end of the festival, there is a live DJ and Kids Zone. No entrance fee for this festival, thankfully.

San Gabriel Dumpling & Beer Fest is a small event festival held at the Mission district of SGV…read more They only have 10 food trucks, 4 souvenir stands and a beer garden. Furthermore, the line to get your food is extremely long which is not worth your time. Food prices are extravagant for pork dumplings, crepes, etc. Plenty of parking in and around the event. Overall, it's a small nice event for the SGV-Mission district community. I'd say visiting it once in your life would suffice.

Parking can be quite tough but worth it once you snag a spot. It's quite lively even the walk in if…read moreyou park over 10 blocks away. The costumes are always the classics and so many that are trending that year of. Lots of group costumes and it runs pretty late from 5pm to 4am. Great open streets style gathering walking music photo taking opportunities. 99% of people dress up if not 100% of people and lots of people get very elaborate with the costumes.

This year was really fun! Good vibes and great costumes!…read more Must go early, parking is really hard to find if you show up late. Also bunch of the fast food and fast casual restaurants ran out of food around 9pm because of so many people. The lines to get into any of the bars and clubs got really long as the night went on. Overall still super fun night.

It's a free event with free entry and free parking, I don't think you can go wrong with that…read more I came here later in the day around 4 PM for a car and reptile event at a coffee shop next door to the event. We were able to find free street parking and as long as you're okay with walking a block or two, parking is easy to find. Just a word of the wise not to go into the neighborhoods as it's super tight and fisted parking. It's a fun community event with lots of volunteers and community sponsors. I think it was only around $5 for activities for children like the sledding, petting zoo, and very small pirate ride, but there's lots of free fun things for kids provided through the Children's Museum and other various community partners. Some pretty cool sponsors were T-mobile, State Farm, Toyota, The Spongebob Movie (neat!), PBS, and much more. Lots and lots of seating available. One in a well lit lot next to the Port-a-Potties and another in front of the performance stage. It does get cold once the sun goes down and there's a lot of working so definitely dress for comfort. There's a couple vendors with merchant crafted goods like decorated tupperware, quilts, and other things like toys or clothing. The city is also selling merchandise for the festival and it's centennial celebration. Friends and I got pumpkin, sweet corn, and beef tamales from the vendor that had the longest (yet most efficient line) and the most trophies. All of which were delicious and can easily be seen why they're turbo winners as well as Randy's Spammy (I've missed every single Asayoru collab they had so seeing them here was a real treat). Great place to hang out and kill a couple hours.

This was a special event hosted by the City of La Habra, where they shut down a small portion of…read moreEuclid Street to feature vendors for food, goods, and entertainment. The parking and event are both free! There are really long lines for award winning tamales, but I didn't have time to wait so I went for a shorter line. Tamales Fiesta - 5/5, really excellent tamales! The red salsa beef tamale was the best one, great flavor. The salsa verde pork tamale was fine. The cheese tamale was a solid choice. I'd pass on the churro cheesecake tamale next time. Very well priced with a drink, at about $27 total. La Reyna Tapatia Events - 4/5, the Hot Cheetos esquites are easily 100/5 so dang delicious! But the pupusa wasn't what I was expecting. It was super flat and didn't feel like it had much filling. Both items cost $25 total which felt a little too expensive for what I got.

I recently attended the 45th Annual Lotus Festival at Echo Park by myself just to see what it was…read moreall about, and I had an absolute blast! My visit ended up being a little shorter than planned because of the summer heat, but I still had plenty of time to explore the booths, enjoy some amazing food, and snap lots of photos. Overall, it was such a fun experience! I showed up hungry, so naturally the first thing I did was scope out the food vendors. There were so many delicious options, mostly Asian cuisine. I originally had my heart set on grabbing some iconic Pioneer Chicken, but those plans changed the second I spotted an Indonesian food vendor called Papa Satay. As someone who's mixed with Dutch-Indonesian, I honestly haven't had much Indonesian food growing up, so I knew I had to give it a try. The woman working the register was an absolute sweetheart--so friendly, welcoming, and incredibly helpful while explaining the menu. I ordered Combo #1, which came with one pork satay skewer, one chicken satay skewer, two egg rolls, and fried noodles. Everything was mostly decent, but those satay skewers completely stole the show! They were packed with flavor, perfectly cooked, and easily my favorite part of the meal. I'll definitely be looking for Papa Satay again at future festivals. Beyond that, there were plenty of other tempting food vendors serving Thai, Chinese, Hawaiian, Korean, and more, so there was truly something for everyone. One thing I really loved was how many interactive booths and activities were spread throughout the festival. The LADWP booth had a fun spin-the-wheel game where I won a cute glasses cleaner, and the LA Public Library booth was handing out freebies while helping people sign up for library cards. There were live cultural performances, painting stations, arts and crafts, and so many opportunities to stop and explore. I was honestly surprised I'd never heard of this festival before! Someone told me that each year they highlight a different Asian country, and this year's featured country was Sri Lanka, which I thought was such a unique and meaningful way to celebrate different cultures. There were also lots of vendors selling handmade goods and other non-food items. I saw everything from henna artists and clothing to artwork, crochet creations, toys, and more. Before arriving, I even preordered one of the official Lotus Festival folding fans online and picked it up as soon as I got there. It was great quality and absolutely saved me in the heat! One of my favorite purchases of the day was the CUTEST crochet frog hat from Ducky Crochet House! Their booth was full of adorable handmade creations, and I couldn't resist. I made sure to follow them on Instagram because I definitely want to support them again and hope to see them back at next year's festival. Even though I attended solo, I genuinely had an amazing time. The atmosphere was welcoming, lively, and full of positive energy. Best of all, it's completely FREE to attend! If you've never been to the Lotus Festival, I highly recommend checking it out. I'll definitely be back next year!

Fun for the whole family. Cultural costumed music and dance performances throughout the day. Dragon…read moreboat races and Light of Dreams Lantern event on the lake. Booths selling cooked food and drink, including beer and wine. Booths offering LA city information and selling boutique and handmade crafts, jewelry and gifts. Carnival rides, arts and crafts and face painting. Enjoy swan pedal boats, views of the lake and lotuses and downtown LA.

I was so excited to get the email from Katie B. that I was the lucky winner of the Air + Style VIP…read moretickets. This festival combined my old love, Incubus, and a new love of snowboarding. I enjoyed every moment of it. With wristbands that scan like tickets, it was easy enter in and out of the VIP sections. However, it looked like the general admission tickets still had great views of the stages and Big Air ramp. So there really wasn't a bad spot to catch a view of all the action at any price tier. The conditions were not ideal with 70 degree LA weather and no thermals were required. However, the pro snowboarders fresh from Aspen X Games completed Big Air tricks as if they were in a ski resort with colder weather conditions. With impressive rotations and height, I was amazed and happy to finally see a Big Air competition live. It was fun seeing some of my favorites like Mark McMorris, Stale Sandbech, Yuki Kadono, and Shaun White. I wasn't a fan of the two hosts of the event. Although they were funny and entertaining, they didn't always announce the rider prior to starting their run and were unsure who won the head to head competition. There were various vendors, food, and drinks available throughout Exposition Park. The food options included Kogi, Wurskuche, Seoul Sausage, Ramen Burger, and The Grilled Cheese Truck. There were designated drinking areas for those over 21. I didn't mind it because there was no drink spillage, which tends to happen during concerts. There were different vendors and stands to get free stuff or buy merch. I loved the Mammoth Mountain stand because they sold their signature beanies for only $5 and had vouchers for 2 for 1 day lift tickets. The weekend's music line up was eclectic bringing in different crowds that included J. Cole, Haim, Travis Barker, and Kaskade. I was most excited to see Incubus, and they were amazing with a great set list that included my favorite songs. I liked that they had a designated Uber and Lyft pick up and drop off section, which made it easier to get in and out of the event. Exposition Park was a great venue for an event like this. I wanted to attend this event last year, but I am happy attend this year thanks to Yelp.

My biggest gripe about this event was the getting in part!…read more We got to the event with our 3rd party printout/app, and waited in the "3rd party line" to get the REAL ticket. But, I kid you not, we waited for at LEAST 45 minutes to move approximately 15 feet. We also see many groups of people running out of our line to cut to the front to get tickets from a random staff who just happens to walk out of nowhere and stand in the middle of nowhere to give out tickets. So a woman in front of us walks up to security to ask him why he was letting people cut and to see if he could stop them so the people in line can get their tickets. He told her that she "should just be like one of them and cut in line too" Wait...WHAT?!?! She came back speechless. Then another woman from a party behind us went to the same security, and came back saying that the security guard told her his job was to "prevent ruckuses like yourself" and that if she keeps it up, he'll remove her from the event. Excuse me?! That's unacceptable behavior from Air + Style's security! Anyway, FINALLY, after about an hour of nonsense, they finally decided to bring someone out and go down our line to pass out tickets for our Groupons. The rest of the event was not bad. They had a lot of food options, and the performers were pretty good. This year, Zedd and Phoenix were AMAZING! I'd suggest bringing a poncho of some sort because this has been the 2nd year in a row where it rained at A+S...and they don't have enough covering.