The Irvine Bowl, the 2,600-seat amphitheater on the grounds of the Festival of Arts, is getting a new lineup this fall as organizers of the Coast Film and Music Festival roll out Concerts in the Canyon, a five-night music series spread across two weekends in October. Grammy winner Ben Harper headlines Saturday, Oct. 24, with Amos Lee closing the series the following night, Sunday, Oct. 25, joining a bill that also includes Aloe Blacc, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Lily Meola, Donovan Frankenreiter, G. Love and newly formed supergroup Rainbow Body.
Coast Film and Music Festival organizers announced the artists and show dates for the series, according to the Los Angeles Times. Tickets go on sale to Laguna Beach residents Thursday, Aug. 27, before opening to the general public on Saturday, Aug. 29. All five shows are set to run from 7 to 10 p.m., and festival passholders were already granted early access to reserve designated seating ahead of the general presale on Eventive, according to Eventive, the festival's official ticketing platform.
Opening Weekend Pairs Jazz With Plein Air Painting
The series kicks off Saturday, Oct. 3, with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, a night that lines up with the opening of the 28th Annual Laguna Plein Air Painters Assn. Invitational, which coincides with the first Concerts in the Canyon weekend. The nine-day painting event brings 30 invited plein air artists to capture Laguna's coastlines, running Oct. 3 through Oct. 11, according to the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association, with a panel discussion scheduled at the Laguna Art Museum on Oct. 7.
Toni Kellenberg, president of the Laguna Plein Air Painters Assn., said the collaboration connects Laguna Beach's live plein air painting and live music communities, according to the Los Angeles Times. Aloe Blacc follows on Sunday, Oct. 4, rounding out the series' opening weekend before the lineup returns for a second round of shows later in the month.
Second Weekend Brings a Debut and a Grammy-Winning Headliner
The second weekend opens Friday, Oct. 23, with the first-ever live performance from Rainbow Body, a newly formed supergroup drawing members from Dawes, Goose, Soulive, The Terrapin Family Band and Circles Around the Sun. The band wrote its debut album in Topanga Canyon and recorded it at Flóki Studios near the Arctic Circle in Northern Iceland, according to JamBase, and will perform alongside artist Ignacio Maria Gomez that night.
Saturday, Oct. 24, features a double bill of Lily Meola, Donovan Frankenreiter and G. Love, all performing on both Oct. 24 and Oct. 25, ahead of headliner Ben Harper, who has won three Grammy Awards. Amos Lee closes out the entire series the following night. Concert-goers will experience live art demonstrations and interactive activities on the Festival of Arts grounds before performances, per the Los Angeles Times report.
From Sold-Out Jack Johnson Shows to a Full Concert Series
The push for more autumn programming at the Irvine Bowl traces back to sold-out shows performed by Jack Johnson during the Coast Film and Music Festival in November 2025, a breakthrough that showed there was demand for music outside the venue's traditional summer season, per the Los Angeles Times. Festival co-founders Ben Warner and Enich Harris revealed plans to launch the concert series at a community meeting on June 8, where organizers introduced Concerts in the Canyon as a pilot program designed to monitor sound levels, track complaint calls and gather neighbor feedback, with a post-concert committee planned to review the data after each show.
Warner and Harris bring deep roots in outdoor action sports media, with Warner formerly at Powder Magazine and Harris at Billabong, according to Surfer. The pair co-founded the Coast Film and Music Festival, now in its eighth year, with passes already being sold via coastfilmfestival.com. The festival also established the Coast Film Foundation in 2022, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that funds grants, scholarships and educational programs for filmmakers focused on social and environmental change.
A Municipal Lease Makes Off-Season Shows Possible
The Irvine Bowl sits on 5.6 acres owned by the City of Laguna Beach, which leases the property to the Festival of Arts under a 40-year agreement running through 2041. That lease allows the amphitheater to be sub-leased to outside nonprofit organizations for up to 68 days during its off-season window between Sept. 23 and Dec. 1, a provision that makes the fall concert series possible.
Opened in 1941 on land donated by James Irvine II, the Irvine Bowl serves as the permanent summer home for the Pageant of the Masters, the living-picture art recreations that draw roughly 225,000 visitors annually, according to The Vista Press. The venue sits within Laguna Canyon's broader arts corridor alongside the Sawdust Art Festival and Laguna Art-A-Fair, both of which marked their 60th anniversaries this year, per Culture OC.
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