Ten Days of Film, Music and Art Take Over Laguna Beach
The Coast Film & Music Festival returns Oct. 16-25 for its eighth year, with five big concert nights at the Irvine Bowl anchoring a townwide program.
For ten days in October, the whole town becomes the venue. The Coast Film & Music Festival returns to Laguna Beach for its eighth year, running Oct. 16-25 with independent film, live performance and conversation spread across downtown, the canyon and the coast.
The centerpiece is Concerts in the Canyon, five nights of live music at the historic Irvine Bowl, the 2,600-seat outdoor amphitheater tucked into the Laguna Canyon hillside. The series opens with Preservation Hall Jazz Band on Oct. 3, followed by Aloe Blacc on Oct. 4 in a presentation staged alongside the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association invitational.
The festival's closing weekend brings three straight nights to the Bowl. Rainbow Body performs with Ignacio Maria Gomez on Friday, Oct. 23. Ben Harper headlines Saturday, Oct. 24, with special guests Donavon Frankenreiter, G. Love and Lily Meola. Amos Lee closes the series on Sunday, Oct. 25, with the same special guests. All shows are rain or shine, with reserved seating.
"We're thrilled to bring another year of world class music to the Irvine Bowl this October," said Enich Harris, cofounder of the festival and the concert series.
The festival also takes over a cluster of walkable venues near downtown. Screenings land at the Festival of Arts grounds and its Forum Theater and at the Rivian South Coast Theater; live sessions fill the Laguna Beach Cultural Arts Center and the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center, while the Forest Avenue Promenade hosts open-air programming. Film programming spans independent features and shorts in adventure, environment, surf, outdoor culture, music and the human experience.
Organizers say the festival has grown from a film event into a townwide cultural draw, and proceeds support the Coast Film Foundation's year-round community, education and filmmaker programs. Festival passes are on sale now.
For residents, the practical notes are familiar ones: expect fuller parking lots downtown and in the canyon on concert nights, and plan around the Irvine Bowl schedule if Forest Avenue and Laguna Canyon Road are part of the evening routine. The festival has become one of the shoulder season's biggest draws for visitors, which is precisely the point.
Films on Forest, the festival's outdoor screening series on the Forest Avenue Promenade, draws crowds under the string lights in the heart of downtown. The Oct. 4 concert with Aloe Blacc is presented alongside the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association invitational, pairing the music programming with the town's plein air painting tradition.
The closing weekend is built as a single arc: Rainbow Body with Ignacio Maria Gomez opens the three-night run, Ben Harper headlines Saturday with Frankenreiter, G. Love and Lily Meola, and Amos Lee closes Sunday with the same special guests. All five Bowl shows are rain or shine, with reserved seating.
We correct errors promptly and note them here. Send corrections through our contact form (choose the Correction topic).
