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13 Gathering

100 days away

La Mesa Oktoberfest — Weekend 2

Oct 9, 2026 Free entry La Mesa Village, La Mesa, CA 91942

La Mesa Village, La Mesa, CA. October 10th. Free. La Mesa Oktoberfest Weekend 2 — the second weekend of the East County celebration that takes La Mesa's charming downtown blocks and turns them into the kind of fall street festival that makes Southern California's version of autumn make sense. Weekend 2 has its own energy. The crowd that comes back the second time knows what they're looking for — the specific vendor they missed, the stein they meant to refill, the live music that made opening weekend worth the drive. La Mesa Village is a genuine small-town downtown, which gives the Oktoberfest a character that larger venues can't replicate: the shops, the restaurants, the tree-lined streets that go golden in October light. Free entry. October 10th. La Mesa is East County at its most accessible — parking is real, the vibe is relaxed, and the Oktoberfest infrastructure that Weekend 1 built is fully operational. Come for the beer and the pretzels and the live music. Stay because October in La Mesa Village with a stein in your hand and no agenda is the version of autumn Southern California doesn't always remember to offer.

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100 days away

La Jolla Art & Wine Festival 2026

Oct 10, 2026 Girard Ave & Prospect St, La Jolla…

The La Jolla Art & Wine Festival returns to the streets of downtown La Jolla for its annual two-day outdoor event in October. More than 170 juried artists exhibit across painting, sculpture, jewelry, ceramics, glass, woodworking, photography, and mixed media — one of the more seriously curated outdoor art events in Southern California. The wine and craft beer component makes this a genuine community gathering rather than a gallery visit: you browse with a glass in hand, discover work you were not expecting, and have real conversations with the artists. La Jolla Village in October has ideal weather — cool mornings, warm afternoons, the kind of light that makes outdoor art events look their best. Girard Avenue and Prospect Street, downtown La Jolla, San Diego, CA 92037. Saturday October 10 and Sunday October 11. General admission includes a wine glass and tasting tickets. Additional tasting tickets available inside. Parking throughout La Jolla Village — the event closes several blocks to traffic, so arrive early or walk from peripheral lots. The event benefits the La Jolla Village Merchants Association and local arts programs.

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100 days away

Taste of Soul Los Angeles 2026

Oct 10, 2026 Crenshaw Blvd between Stocker St a…

Taste of Soul is one of the largest free annual festivals in Los Angeles, drawing over 350,000 visitors to Crenshaw Boulevard for a celebration of African American culture, cuisine, music, and community. The 2026 edition continues a tradition the Los Angeles Sentinel newspaper has run for decades in the heart of South LA. The festival spans over a mile of Crenshaw Boulevard between Stocker Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, with the street closed to traffic and transformed into an open-air block party. Hundreds of food vendors serve soul food, Southern BBQ, Caribbean food, vegan options, and desserts from Black-owned restaurants and businesses — the official purpose of the festival is to showcase and promote Black-owned enterprises in Los Angeles. Live music runs on multiple stages throughout the day, featuring R&B, gospel, hip-hop, neo-soul, and jazz from Southern California-based artists and regional headliners. Vendor tents from community organizations, businesses, healthcare providers, and cultural groups line the boulevard alongside the food vendors. The Crenshaw corridor is accessible by Metro K (Crenshaw) Line with stops at Leimert Park and Crenshaw/Expo. Parking in surrounding residential streets and lots. No admission charge. The event runs October annually — check the LA Sentinel for the confirmed 2026 date. Bring cash for food vendors and come hungry.

Great American Beer Festival 2026 — Denver, CO

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🌎 Nation's Best 100 days away

Great American Beer Festival 2026 — Denver, CO

Oct 10 – Oct 11, 2026 Levitt Pavilion, Denver, CO

For the first time in 40 years, the Great American Beer Festival moves outside — two days at Levitt Pavilion in Denver, under the sky, with 300 breweries. The longest-running American craft beer competition, rethought. The experience is a curated education in American craft brewing. Hundreds of breweries pour samples across organized sections by style: sours, lagers, IPAs, stouts, sessionable ales, and experimental categories that did not exist as named styles ten years ago. Pouring representatives are often the brewers themselves. Conversations that start at a sample cup can end with a brewery tour invitation. The density of craft knowledge on the floor is unmatched anywhere in the country. GABF is worth attending for anyone who drinks craft beer with intent, for people who want to understand why American craft brewing became a global benchmark, or for anyone curious about what beer tastes like when it is made by someone who cares more about the liquid than the label. It is not for anyone expecting a music festival atmosphere. This is a tasting event first. What to know: tickets go on sale in July, starting with a presale for Brewers Association and American Homebrewers Association members. Public tickets typically sell out within hours. The outdoor Levitt Pavilion venue means weather planning is necessary for October in Denver. Sessions run 12pm to 4pm on both days. Designated driver tickets are available. Drink water. GABF has crowned the best American craft beers since 1982. The competition results, announced at the festival, shape what breweries brew and what distributors carry for the following year. Winning a GABF medal is the craft brewing equivalent of a Michelin star. The public tasting gives attendees access to the same beers the judges evaluated, poured by the people who made them. American craft brewing is one of the defining cultural exports of the past forty years: a grass-roots rebellion against industrial uniformity that built its own infrastructure, vocabulary, and community from scratch. GABF is where that community gathers annually to declare what it has accomplished. It belongs on Falkor's Nation's Best list.

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🌎 Nation's Best 100 days away

Great American Beer Festival 2026 — Denver, CO

Oct 10 – Oct 11, 2026 Levitt Pavilion, Denver, CO

The Great American Beer Festival 2026 takes place October 10 and 11 at Levitt Pavilion in Denver, Colorado, in a historic format shift: for the first time in the festival's history, GABF moves outdoors. Produced by the Brewers Association, GABF is the largest and most prestigious craft beer competition in the United States, and the public tasting event is the closest most people will ever get to the actual judging process. The experience is a curated education in American craft brewing. Hundreds of breweries pour samples across organized sections by style: sours, lagers, IPAs, stouts, sessionable ales, and experimental categories that did not exist as named styles ten years ago. Pouring representatives are often the brewers themselves. Conversations that start at a sample cup can end with a brewery tour invitation. The density of craft knowledge on the floor is unmatched anywhere in the country. GABF is worth attending for anyone who drinks craft beer with intent, for people who want to understand why American craft brewing became a global benchmark, or for anyone curious about what beer tastes like when it is made by someone who cares more about the liquid than the label. It is not for anyone expecting a music festival atmosphere. This is a tasting event first. What to know: tickets go on sale in July, starting with a presale for Brewers Association and American Homebrewers Association members. Public tickets typically sell out within hours. The outdoor Levitt Pavilion venue means weather planning is necessary for October in Denver. Sessions run 12pm to 4pm on both days. Designated driver tickets are available. Drink water. GABF has crowned the best American craft beers since 1982. The competition results, announced at the festival, shape what breweries brew and what distributors carry for the following year. Winning a GABF medal is the craft brewing equivalent of a Michelin star. The public tasting gives attendees access to the same beers the judges evaluated, poured by the people who made them. American craft brewing is one of the defining cultural exports of the past forty years: a grass-roots rebellion against industrial uniformity that built its own infrastructure, vocabulary, and community from scratch. GABF is where that community gathers annually to declare what it has accomplished. It belongs on Falkor's Nation's Best list.

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101 days away

Melrose Trading Post — Oct 11

Oct 11, 2026 Fairfax High School, 7850 Melrose …

Melrose Trading Post is one of Los Angeles's most beloved weekly outdoor markets — a Sunday institution at Fairfax High School in West Hollywood where vendors sell vintage clothing, handcrafted artisan goods, antique furniture, art, records, and one-of-a-kind objects to a crowd that treats the market as a social gathering as much as a shopping trip. The Melrose Trading Post has been running since 1995, which gives it something most markets cannot manufacture: a real community. The same vendors return week after week, the same customers show up every Sunday, and the collective accumulation of that repetition creates something that feels more like a neighborhood ritual than a commercial event. The quality is genuinely variable — treasure hunting is part of the culture — but the atmosphere is consistent: creative, laid-back, and decidedly LA. Fairfax High School, 7850 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90046 (parking lot). Every Sunday, year-round, from approximately 9 AM to 5 PM. $3 admission goes to benefit Fairfax High School programs. Parking limited in the lot — street parking on Melrose and Fairfax, or take the 217 bus. The market covers the school's full parking lot and can accommodate a few hours of serious exploration. Food trucks and vendors are on-site. Rain occasionally interrupts — check @melrosetradingpost for same-day status.

Chainsaw Man Season 2 — Premiere Watch Party San Diego

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11 Gathering

101 days away

Chainsaw Man Season 2 — Premiere Watch Party San Diego

Oct 11, 2026 Nerd Bar San Diego, 2847 Universit…

Chainsaw Man Season 2 returns with Denji and the most stylistically committed animation in weekly shonen — MAPPA doing what only MAPPA does, every episode opening with a different band's ending theme. Nerd Bar SD is screening the premiere for the audience that has been rewatching Season 1's final act since it aired. The show where the opening five minutes are never safe to summarize.

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106 days away

MCAS Miramar Air Show 2026 — San Diego

Oct 16, 2026 Free MCAS Miramar, 10195 Mesa Rim Rd, S…

The Marine Corps Air Station Miramar Air Show is among the largest air shows in the world — typically drawing over 700,000 visitors across a weekend in October. The Blue Angels close the weekend. What happens before them is eight hours of military aircraft demonstrations, aerial acrobatics, and formations that serve as practical evidence that physics has specific limits, and humans keep finding ways around them. The MCAS Miramar gate opens to the public free of charge for the air show weekend. No ticket is required for general admission. The food is fairgrounds-style. The parking situation requires planning. The experience rewards arriving early and staying late. The crowd is a cross-section of San Diego that rarely occupies the same space: military families, aviation enthusiasts, children seeing a fighter jet pass below a thousand feet for the first time, and adults who went as children and never got over it. MCAS Miramar, San Diego, CA 92145. Free general admission. Annual October weekend. Exact dates posted each year at airshowsandiego.com.

Scream Diego 2026 — Halloween Horror Convention

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10 Gathering

107 days away

Scream Diego 2026 — Halloween Horror Convention

Oct 17, 2026 DoubleTree by Hilton San Diego Mis…

Scream Diego returns for Halloween season 2026 at the DoubleTree by Hilton San Diego Mission Valley on October 17. Organized by Silk Road Productions -- the same indie team behind San Diego Anime Convention and Fangaea -- Scream Diego is San Diego's dedicated horror fan convention, built for the people who love Halloween the way others love Christmas. The programming spans horror film screenings, a vendor floor stacked with horror collectibles, original art, and vintage memorabilia, a full cosplay contest, panels on the history and craft of horror cinema, and a zombie-themed kids zone for families who want to introduce the next generation to the genre responsibly. The energy is celebratory, not scary -- this is a room full of people who have been waiting all year to talk about their favorite films and costumes with people who actually care. Location: DoubleTree by Hilton San Diego Mission Valley, 7450 Hazard Center Drive, San Diego, CA 92108. Tickets: $15 early bird, $25 at the door; VIP experience available at $75; kids under 8 free. Cosplay encouraged -- horror, fantasy, sci-fi, or anything with serious commitment to the bit. Scream Diego is the kind of event where you bump into the same people every October and pick up the conversation exactly where you left it. That is what a convention is supposed to feel like.

Coming Soon

27 Gathering

107 days away

Taste of Soul LA 2026

Oct 17, 2026 Free Crenshaw Blvd (Martin Luther King …

Taste of Soul is one of the largest street festivals in Los Angeles, held annually on a Saturday in October along Crenshaw Boulevard between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Leimert Park Village. The festival has been running for over two decades and draws more than 300,000 people in a single day. The format is a mile-plus of street vendors, restaurant booths, live music stages, a car show, health screenings, and community organization presence. The food is the center of it: every major Black-owned restaurant in South LA has a presence, and the smell of barbecue, catfish, and soul food covers the entire stretch of Crenshaw. Taste of Soul was founded by the Los Angeles Sentinel, the oldest Black-owned newspaper in California, and it remains a community institution. The crowd is multigenerational, neighborhood-rooted, and enormous. This is Leimert Park and Crenshaw at their fullest. The festival is free to attend. Crenshaw closes to traffic for the day. Metro K Line (Crenshaw/LAX Line) stops at Leimert Park Village — this is the easiest way in and out. Arrive early if you want to move; by noon the crowds are deep.

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20 Gathering

107 days away

Little Italy Festa 2026 San Diego

Oct 17 – Oct 18, 2026 Free admission India Street & Fir Street, San Die…

The Little Italy Festa is San Diego's largest annual street festival and one of the most authentic Italian-American celebrations on the West Coast. Held every October in San Diego's Little Italy neighborhood, the Festa fills India Street and the surrounding blocks with cooking demonstrations, bocce ball tournaments, live Italian folk music, traditional dance performances, and an extraordinary spread of food - from handmade pasta to cannoli to imported cheeses. The festival is organized by the Little Italy Association and draws over 100,000 visitors across the weekend. The neighborhood is one of San Diego's most walkable districts - bounded by the waterfront, lined with bistros and gelato shops. The Festa features the Gesso Italiano, where local artists create chalk art murals on the streets. The cooking competition and wine garden are peak-hour attractions. Neighborhood restaurants offer festival specials throughout. Little Italy Festa 2026 runs in mid-October along India Street and Fir Street, San Diego. The event is free to attend. Parking is limited - the Little Italy trolley stop on the Green Line provides easy access.

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13 Gathering

108 days away

San Diego Night Market — Fall Edition

Oct 17, 2026 Free entry Waterfront Park, 1600 Pacific Hwy,…

Waterfront Park, 1600 Pacific Hwy, San Diego. October 17th. Free. The San Diego Night Market Fall Edition at Waterfront Park — the evening market that comes back in October with the cooler air and the vendor rows and the street food and the waterfront setting that makes the Night Market worth scheduling your month around. The fall Night Market runs differently than the summer version. October air at Waterfront Park has the quality that makes being outside in San Diego in autumn the thing people mean when they say San Diego has great weather — warm enough to be comfortable, cool enough to walk without sweating, the bay reflecting the city lights by the time you've been there an hour. Free entry. October 17th. sdnightmarket.com for the vendor lineup. Bring cash if you have it — not every vendor takes cards. Arrive before 7 to find a spot at the waterfront tables. The Night Market works on foot traffic and conversation — you don't need a plan to have a good night here, just a direction to walk and a sense of what you feel like eating. October at the waterfront is when San Diego shows you why people move here.

Spirited Away 25th Anniversary — Studio Ghibli Fest 2026

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🌎 Nation's Best 108 days away

Spirited Away 25th Anniversary — Studio Ghibli Fest 2026

Oct 17 – Oct 21, 2026 ✨ New Varies by theater Fathom Events Theaters Nationwide …

You have been homesick for twenty-five years for a place that was never real. A bathhouse lit gold over black water. A train that only runs one way, across a flooded world, into the dark. Spirited Away gave you that homesickness the first time you saw it — and this October, for one week only, its 25th anniversary and the finale of Studio Ghibli Fest 2026, Hayao Miyazaki's masterpiece comes back to the big screen where the ache belongs. There is a particular silence that falls over a theater full of people who love the same film. The lights drop, Joe Hisaishi's first piano notes land, and a room of strangers stops breathing at the same moment. Ghibli Fest runs both the subtitled original and the English dub, with a piece of surprise content before each show. But the real event is the crowd — parents who were kids when this came out, now holding the hands of kids seeing it for the first time; longtime fans catching a detail they'd missed on every laptop rewatch; someone two rows back crying quietly and not caring who sees. Even if you've seen it a dozen times, you have not seen it like this. If Spirited Away is a film you carry around inside you, this isn't a question — you go. Projected, at scale, with sound that fills the room, is the version it was made for. It's rated PG and open to almost everyone, though No-Face and the spirit world can frighten very small children — parents of under-sevens should know that going in. This is not a movie to leave on in the background. It's two hours built to move you, in a room full of people who came to be moved alongside you. Tickets run through the official Ghibli Fest and participating theater box offices, and the anniversary finale sells out earliest of the whole festival — buy ahead. Choose your format on purpose: the dub is the gentle way in for young kids, the subtitled original is what the purists want. Come early for the pre-show content most latecomers miss. Go on a weekend evening if you can, when the theater fills all the way up and the silence gets deeper. Some films you own and still leave the house for. At twenty-five, Spirited Away is less a movie than a place people keep returning to — and going back together, in the dark, is how you remember why it marked you. One week in October. Then the train pulls away again.

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108 days away

Melrose Trading Post — Oct 18

Oct 18, 2026 Fairfax High School, 7850 Melrose …

Boomtown Brewery Tuesday Trivia — October 20

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111 days away

Boomtown Brewery Tuesday Trivia — October 20

Oct 20 – Oct 21, 2026 Boomtown Brewery, 700 Jackson St, …

Boomtown Brewery in downtown Los Angeles runs free trivia every Tuesday at 8 PM — a general knowledge quiz hosted in the Arts District taproom, drawing teams from the downtown LA creative community for a night of craft beer and competitive trivia with prizes for the winners. The format is a standard general knowledge quiz with themed rounds mixed in, hosted by a rotating set of trivia hosts who keep the energy live and the pace honest. The Boomtown space itself contributes to the event: an industrial-chic Arts District brewery with rotating food trucks, a full tap list of craft beers, and a neighborhood crowd that has adopted Tuesday trivia as a standing weekly commitment. Teams of up to six. Free to play. Prizes for the top finishers. The crowd is a mix of downtown creatives, brewery regulars, and competitive trivia teams who have been coming since the night launched. It is a casual event that people take seriously — which is exactly the right balance. Boomtown Brewery, 700 Jackson St, Los Angeles, CA 90012. Arts District, downtown LA. Every Tuesday at 8 PM. Free to play. Metro: Little Tokyo/Arts District station on the Gold Line, short walk. Street parking on Jackson St and the surrounding Arts District grid. Food trucks on-site most nights — check Boomtown's social media for the weekly truck announcement.

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114 days away

Bluey's Big Play — Hollywood Pantages

Oct 23, 2026 From $35 6233 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood, CA…

Bluey's Big Play arrives at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre, bringing the beloved Australian children's television series to life in its first-ever stage show. Directly adapted from the animated series that has become a global phenomenon, the production features puppetry, live performance, and original storytelling that extends the world of Bluey, Bingo, Bandit, and Chilli beyond the television screen. The show is specifically designed for children ages 2 through 7, but parents who watch Bluey regularly know the series rewards adults just as richly as children. The stage version includes new material written specifically for this production. The Hollywood Pantages is one of the most storied theaters in Los Angeles — a 1920s movie palace with a 2,700-seat capacity that has hosted major Broadway productions for decades. Running time is approximately 55 minutes with no intermission. The theater is located on Hollywood Boulevard near Highland Avenue, accessible by Metro B Line (Red) at Hollywood and Highland Station. Parking is available in the Hollywood and Highland parking structure adjacent to the theater. Arrive early — the lobby experience is part of the fun.

Pomona Swap Meet & Classic Car Show — October 2026

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115 days away

Pomona Swap Meet & Classic Car Show — October 2026

Oct 25, 2026 Fairplex, 1101 W McKinley Ave, Pom…

The Pomona Swap Meet & Classic Car Show at the Fairplex is one of the largest and longest-running automotive swap meets in the United States. The October 25 edition brings together thousands of vendors and hundreds of show vehicles across the sprawling Fairplex grounds in Pomona. The swap meet side features sellers of every automotive part, tool, accessory, and memorabilia imaginable — from NOS factory parts for 1960s muscle cars to vintage dealership signs, chrome accessories, service manuals, and the occasional complete project car sitting on a trailer in a vendor space. This is where serious restorers find the pieces that don't exist anywhere else. The car show side runs parallel — clubs bring everything from pre-war machines and hot rods to custom lowriders, restored Japanese imports, and everything between. Judging covers classes across American, European, and Japanese vehicles by era and modification level. The Fairplex is located just off I-10 at White Avenue in Pomona. Ample paid parking on-site. Bring cash for vendor purchases — many sellers are cash-only. Gates open early; serious parts shoppers arrive at dawn before the best finds walk out the door. Dress for outdoor walking — the event covers a massive footprint and comfortable shoes are essential.

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115 days away

Melrose Trading Post — Oct 25

Oct 25, 2026 Fairfax High School, 7850 Melrose …

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