Culver City's Helms Bakery District is throwing open its pedestrian plazas this Saturday, August 15, for a free street fair built around Ferragosto, the centuries-old Italian summer holiday. The event runs from 1 to 6 p.m. and brings gelato, espresso, live music and a parade of Vespas to the historic complex, alongside pasta-making demonstrations from Culver City's own Pasta Sisters.
According to Time Out, Ferragosto at Helms is billed as a free street fair with European vibes, and it channels the spirit of Italy's summertime holiday across the Helms Bakery District grounds. Attendees can expect gelato from Dolcenero, cheese, salumi and olive oil tastings from Sogno Toscano, and complimentary Caffè Luxxe espresso scattered throughout the afternoon, per the outlet's rundown of the event.
The holiday being celebrated dates back to 18 B.C., when Roman Emperor Augustus established Feriae Augusti, or “Augustus' rest,” to give agricultural workers a break following the summer harvest, according to Carpe Diem Tours. The Catholic Church later aligned the holiday with the August 15 Feast of the Assumption of Mary, and in the 1930s the Italian government popularized it further as a mass vacation tradition, introducing discounted “holiday trains” that let working-class families take day trips to the coast, per the same source.
Pasta, Music and a Vespa Parade Fill Helms Walk
Pasta Sisters, the Culver City restaurant at 3280 Helms Ave. hosting live hand-rolled tortellini demonstrations at the festival, was founded in 2015 by Executive Chef Paola Da Re and her three children after the family emigrated from Padova, Italy. Their menu draws on century-old family recipes passed down by Da Re's mother, Maria Giovanna, according to the Los Angeles Times. Hoodline previously featured the restaurant's build-your-own pasta concept and its original Pico Boulevard location as a neighborhood favorite in the Arlington Heights area.
Programming on Helms Walk includes a live musical performance from guitarist Jon Sosin and friends from 1 to 3 p.m., according to the Helms Design District's event page. Time Out also lists a beer garden from Father's Office, an Italian-inspired installation from Studio Dream Factory, a screening of Roman Holiday on loop inside the Scandinavian Designs showroom, an IKEA Family Fun Lawn, and a Vespa parade as part of the day's lineup.
Father's Office, the beer garden partner for the festival, has its own outsized place in Southern California dining history. The bar originated in Santa Monica in 1953 and helped spark the state's craft beer movement before becoming California's first voluntary smoke-free bar in 1991, according to its Wikipedia entry.
A Landmark With Olympic and Lunar Ties
The Helms Bakery District itself carries a layered history that predates the design center it is today. Paul Helms founded the original bakery in 1931, operating an 11-acre industrial complex in Culver City that delivered fresh bread to neighborhood homes using a fleet of signature yellow delivery coaches until it closed in 1969, according to PBS SoCal. The bakery served as the official baker of the 1932 Los Angeles Summer Olympics and later supplied bread for NASA's Apollo 11 lunar mission in 1969, earning it local fame as the source of what's been called the first bread on the moon, per the Los Angeles Conservancy.
Commercial real estate firm Walter N. Marks, Inc. acquired the vacant facility in 1972 and restored its Art Deco architecture and rooftop neon sign, converting the property into the design and dining center it remains today, the Conservancy notes.
Retail Turnover Continues at the Complex
The festival lands amid a stretch of commercial change at the property. Chef Sang Yoon re-established a 14,000-square-foot Helms Bakery retail marketplace inside the complex in November 2024, but shuttered the operation just 13 months later in December 2025, citing economic challenges facing independent Los Angeles eateries, according to FOX 11 Los Angeles.
The Helms Design District is now working through a broader tenant transition, with a 38,000-square-foot urban IKEA store and Costa Mesa's Folks Pizzeria both slated to join the complex as part of an effort to revitalize foot traffic following recent turnover, as Hoodline previously reported. Against that backdrop, Saturday's free, family-friendly Ferragosto fair gives the district a chance to fill its plazas with the kind of foot traffic those new tenants are ultimately banking on.
