When does outdoor music season in the Hollywood Hills actually end? The Hollywood Bowl's 2026 summer season ran June 19 to September 27 and closed with Jon Batiste. On the other side of the Cahuenga Pass, the Ford's season started May 8 and ends October 31. That puts the last outdoor stage of the year about five weeks past the Bowl's summer finale, at 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East.
From Friday, October 23, through Halloween, the Ford has six evening shows and one Sunday matinee left. After that, its calendar shows nothing until May 18, 2027.
Two seasons, one pass, very different scales
The Ford's longer season comes down to what it is. The LA Phil runs both venues. The Ford, though, is a County of Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation park and open-air amphitheater with just under 1,200 seats, and no seat is more than 96 feet from the stage. The LA Phil runs it under county stewardship. Its 2026 season announcement lists music, dance, film, theater, comedy and spoken word on the same program.
That mix is why the final weeks look the way they do. A smaller hillside room can put a jazz quartet, an electronic double bill, a Sunday matinee for children and two Halloween-week film screenings in the same nine days.
What's left on the calendar from October 23
The Ford's current event pages list these dates for the season's final stretch.
| Date | Program | Start |
|---|---|---|
| Fri, Oct 23 | Julian Lage featuring John Medeski, Jorge Roeder and Kenny Wollesen | 8:00 p.m. |
| Sat, Oct 24 | Music Beyond Borders: Discostan with Lifafa and Arushi Jain | 8:00 p.m. |
| Sun, Oct 25 | DrumatiX: Rhythm, Redefined! | 11:30 a.m. |
| Tue, Oct 27 | Montell Fish: The Nest Tour | 8:00 p.m. |
| Thu, Oct 29 | Ava DuVernay's Main Character Energy | 8:00 p.m. |
| Fri, Oct 30 | From Dusk Till Dawn, 30th Anniversary | 8:00 p.m. |
| Sat, Oct 31 | The Rocky Horror Picture Show with Sins O' The Flesh | 8:00 p.m. |
If you saved the May announcement, check it against the current pages. The Montell Fish date on October 27 wasn't in that announcement. The announcement also gives the wrong weekdays for the last two screenings, calling them "Saturday, October 30" and "Sunday, October 31." The event pages have them right: From Dusk Till Dawn on Friday the 30th and Rocky Horror on Saturday the 31st, Halloween night.
Some of these shows are the venue's own premieres. Julian Lage is making his Ford debut with his quartet of Lage, John Medeski, Jorge Roeder and Kenny Wollesen. The Discostan program, part of the collective's 15-year anniversary series, features Lifafa's North American debut and his only scheduled US performance, alongside composer and modular synthesist Arushi Jain. Both screenings are co-produced with Street Food Cinema. On Halloween, Sins O' the Flesh leads the Rocky Horror sing-along.
The DuVernay evening is presented by ARRAY. DuVernay hosts it as a one-night program pairing clips from iconic films with conversation from artists, actors and filmmakers. Its event page currently reads "No Seats Available," so for most people the remaining options fall on the other six dates.
The Sunday matinee runs on different logistics
DrumatiX on October 25 is the one daytime show left, and that changes how you get there. The Ford's free shuttles run only for evening events. On-site parking for family shows is listed at $5, against $15 for standard parking at evening shows. It's part of the LA Soundscapes family series, and those concerts include up to two free tickets for children 12 and under with each full-price ticket.
The show is led by artistic director and choreographer Noa Barankin. Performers Jeze Zankich, Emma Edythe, Amanda Martz, Amaya Rodriguez and Anessa Davies use tap, body percussion, drumming and recycled or found objects to make music. It's the last daytime program of the year on this stage.
How an evening at the Ford works
The evening shows follow a set routine, and a few details from the Ford's own visitor pages make it easier.
- Choose your approach. For evening shows, free shuttles leave the Universal City/Studio City Metro Station and Ovation Hollywood. They start two hours before showtime, run about every 20 minutes until the show begins, and return from the front gates afterward. Parking at the Metro station lot is a $3 daily flat rate. Ovation Hollywood charges $6 an hour with a $25 daily maximum.
- Or park on site. Parking at the Ford is limited and stacked. Listed rates are $7 for motorcycles, $10 for carpools, $10 for accessible parking and $15 standard. Full details are on the getting here page.
- Arrive when the gates open. Gates open 90 minutes before every show. Picnic tables on Edison Plaza and Zev Terrace are first-come, first-served, and there are no tables inside the amphitheater.
- Pack to the rules. According to the house rules, you can bring your own food and drinks, including beer and wine but not hard liquor. Coolers and baskets can be no larger than 15 by 12 by 22 inches so they fit under your seat.
- Or buy on site. Bodega at The Ford includes chef Mercedes Rojas's Arepa Stand for Venezuelan street food, MANEATINGPLANT's Taiwanese comfort food from chefs Candice Tzeng and Phil Kwan, and a Grab & Go Market stocked by independent Los Angeles brands. Caroline Styne curates the wine, beer and cocktails.
At the end of October the sun sets well before an 8 p.m. curtain. Arriving at 6:30 means eating on the terrace before the hillside goes dark.
A concrete stage built after a fire
This stage has run for close to a century, and the history explains why it's still here. The Pilgrimage Play's first venue went up on this site in 1920, with wooden seating designed by architect Bernard Maybeck. A brush fire destroyed it in October 1929. The replacement was a poured-concrete amphitheater designed by William Lee Woollett. It opened in 1931 and hosted the Pilgrimage Play until a 1964 lawsuit ended the production.
In 1976 the Pilgrimage Theatre was renamed the John Anson Ford Theatre, honoring the county supervisor's support for the arts. A rehabilitation plan was commissioned in 2008. The $80 million project began in September 2014 and finished in 2017. In 2019 the county and the LA Phil signed an operating agreement, and the LA Phil began presenting at the Ford in 2020. The 2026 season is the seventh under LA Phil stewardship. The full timeline is on the Ford's history page.
Woollett's concrete bowl is the same structure that hosts this month's shows. The renovation decade was the investment that let a county park keep a full season running past the Bowl's summer finale.
After October 31
Rocky Horror on Halloween night is the last listing of 2026. The next date on the Ford's calendar is Agnes Obel on May 18, 2027, more than six months away. Until then, the season's last dates in the Cahuenga Pass are the six evenings and one Sunday morning in the table above.
My work in the Hollywood Hills has always gone beyond the houses: the stages and venues that give these canyons their character are part of it too. If you'd like to talk about life near the Ford, or about a hillside home where the music carries in October, Joan Duffy would be glad to hear from you. Let's Connect.
