The 49th Annual Simon Rodia Watts Towers Jazz Festival takes over the Watts Towers Arts Center Campus Sunday, running from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. with free admission and free parking. The daylong event blends jazz, salsa, funk, gospel and hip-hop performances with art exhibitions, gardening activities and a lineup of family-friendly programming, all centered around the historic towers built by Simon Rodia.
According to MyNewsLA.com, the festival opens with a Yoruba ground blessing led by Alaadun before performances get underway. The reported lineup includes Adaawe, the Todd Cochran Trio, a Bobby Matos tribute band, Larry Nash and the Jazz Symphonic All Stars, the Caribbean Allstars and Medusa Tha Gangsta Goddess. The City of Los Angeles' cultural affairs listing places the event on Sunday, September 27, 2026, matching the same 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. window.
The Watts Towers Arts Center Campus hosted the 44th Annual Watts Towers Day of the Drum Festival on Saturday, setting up a back-to-back weekend of music before Sunday's jazz celebration, per the same MyNewsLA.com account. Festival organizers describe the event as a tribute that pays homage to jazz, gospel and blues while venturing into avant-garde and Latin jazz territory, according to the Watts Towers Arts Center, which also calls it the oldest festival in Los Angeles.
Free Admission and Family Programming Fill the Grounds
Beyond the music, the festival includes a universal drum circle, children's programming, and gardening activities, per MyNewsLA.com's account. The School of Healing Martial Arts is reported to lead a community tai chi class, while food vendors and arts and crafts vendors are set to line the grounds throughout the day.
The festival's location has been reported as 1727 E. 107th St., per the same account, situating the celebration within the broader Watts Towers Arts Center Campus in Los Angeles. Organizers note the event falls during the last weekend of September, a tradition the Watts Towers Arts Center says it has maintained for its annual jazz and drum festivals.
Art Exhibitions Trace Decades of Watts History
The festival grounds are also reported to host art exhibitions in the Charles Mingus and Noah Purifoy galleries, according to MyNewsLA.com. One reported collection, From Alkebulan Africa to Watts, features a 52-piece assembly of West African masks, sculptures and ceremonial objects said to have been donated to the Watts Towers Arts Center by Augustus F. Hawkins in 1985.
Another reported exhibition, Spirits of the Ancestors, is said to feature shovels used as canvases by 13 artists connected to Watts and the broader Los Angeles arts community. The collection was reportedly conceived by Rosie Lee Hooks and first unveiled in 2003, according to the same MyNewsLA.com report.
City records add some context to the festival's long run. A 2025 city cultural affairs publication identified the prior year's event as the 48th Annual Simon Rodia Watts Towers Jazz Festival, and the City of Los Angeles listed that 2025 festival for Sunday, September 28, running the same 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. schedule now repeated for the 49th edition. More information on Sunday's festival is available at wattstowers.org.
