Downtown El Segundo and the neighboring Smoky Hollow district turn into a sprawling, free open-air gallery this Saturday, Aug. 22, as the 11th annual El Segundo Art Walk runs from 3 to 9 p.m. with no ticket required. The self-guided event folds together fine art sales, live music, chefs, local creators and dozens of participating businesses across the city's compact downtown core.
Organizers have set up event headquarters at Fire Station 1, located at 314 Main Street, where attendees can pick up maps before wandering the district on their own, according to the City of El Segundo. As NBC Los Angeles reports, the walk features two stages, one anchored at Grand Avenue and Main Street, which serves as the event's central point, and another at Richmond and Grand. A stretch of Richmond Street between Grand and Franklin avenues will close to traffic for live music and pop-up galleries, per the city.
A Lowrider Build and an Historic Organ
Among the hands-on attractions this year is an interactive lowrider art experience led by muralist Vyal and artist Jacqueline Valenzuela, letting visitors design their own custom lowriders alongside Vyal's featured 1976 Chevy Monte Carlo, nicknamed Tezcatlipoca, the city says. The station's report notes that ESMoA is offering visitors the chance to construct a lowrider as part of the installation, a hands-on twist that blends fine art with Southern California car culture.
ESMoA, short for the Experimentally Structured Museum of Art, was founded on Main Street in 2013 by the Artlab21 Foundation before relocating its physical operations to neighboring Lawndale in late 2023, functioning today as a mobile art laboratory that emphasizes participatory experiences over static collections, according to the Daily Breeze. Its pop-up presence at the Art Walk reflects that mission of taking creative programming on the road.
Elsewhere on Main Street, Old Town Music Hall gives attendees the chance to hear the Mighty Wurlitzer, per the seed report. The venue originally opened in 1921 as the 200-seat State Theatre serving workers from the nearby Standard Oil Refinery, before two musicians restored it in 1968 and installed a 1925 Mighty Wurlitzer theater pipe organ salvaged from Long Beach's Fox West Coast Theatre, according to the Los Angeles Conservancy. The organ carries more than 2,000 pipes and is powered by a 10-horsepower Spencer Turbine Orgoblo wind system, per the Old Town Music Hall's own account of its history.
Face Painting, AR Mirrors and a Beer Garden
Beyond the galleries, the day includes face painting and a beer garden pouring local beer from El Segundo Brewing Company, per the city's announcement. Reality Experience Design is bringing interactive AR mirrors to the mix, adding a tech-forward diversion alongside the art for sale that lines the route, NBC Los Angeles reports.
The event typically draws more than 1,000 attendees and involves upwards of 70 participating businesses alongside 50 Southern California artists, who transform commercial storefronts into temporary galleries for the day, according to the City of El Segundo Economic Development office. That business participation gives independent artists a rare chance to show fine art without the overhead of a permanent gallery space.
An Industrial Neighborhood Turned Creative Hub
The Art Walk's footprint through Smoky Hollow traces back to an industrial neighborhood named for the smoke that once settled there from Chevron's 1911 oil refinery, before the city rezoned the area into a hub for creative design and technology firms, as the Los Angeles Times has reported. The district evolved from post-World War II aerospace manufacturing into a flexible workspace hub that now hosts studios and pop-up exhibitions during events like this one.
That transformation mirrors a broader shift in El Segundo, where a residential population of roughly 17,000 swells to a daytime workforce topping 70,000 thanks to a heavy concentration of corporate, aerospace and technology employers headquartered in the city, according to El Segundo's economic development office. U.S. Census Bureau estimates place the city's median household income at $150,737 between 2020 and 2024, about 1.5 times the Los Angeles metro area average of $95,958, a gap that reflects the expansion of the defense, aerospace and high-tech sectors locally.
El Segundo's year-round public art scene includes a 510-foot round mural designed by artist John Van Hamersveld, creator of the iconic Endless Summer poster, made up of 51 colorful panels honoring local surf legends and city history, per the city's economic development office. The Art Walk arrives as more creative and music-industry enterprises put down roots in town, following electronic music equipment maker Roland's decision to open its new U.S. headquarters in El Segundo in April, a move Hoodline previously reported was tied to strengthening ties with the Southern California creative arts community.
