City Ballet of San Diego is marking 34 years on stage with a gala built around old Hollywood glamour, and the price of admission ranges from $450 to $650 a seat. The Hollywood Magic Gala lands on Saturday, November 14, 2026, at the historic US Grant Hotel in downtown San Diego, with dinner, a live auction and dancing built into the night.
The evening is framed as an annual fundraising gala, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune, with guests beginning the night at 6 p.m. with a hosted champagne reception, red carpet photos and a silent auction in the hotel's Palm Court. At 7 p.m., the party moves into the Presidential Ballroom, where City Ballet of San Diego says tickets include complimentary valet parking, the champagne reception, dinner with a wine pairing and an after-dinner dance party.
Tinseltown Dinner and a Live Ballet Performance
Dinner will carry a Tinseltown theme paired with wine, per the Union-Tribune's reporting on the news release, and the evening program folds in a live ballet performance by City Ballet dance artists alongside the night's live auction. Darren Diess returns as emcee and auctioneer, leading what organizers call the Call to the Heart appeal, an on-the-spot fundraising moment built into the program.
Once dinner wraps, the celebration continues at 9 p.m. with dancing led by DJ Loczi, keeping the dance floor going for the rest of the night. The live auction's headline items include a trip to New York City and a stay at a luxury beach house on Oahu's North Shore, an item City Ballet also lists among the gala's offerings on its own event page.
Honorary Chairs and Ticket Tiers
Barbie and Dan Spinazzola and Carol and Tim Haidinger are serving as honorary co-chairs for the evening, while Anna Scipione chairs the gala committee, according to the Union-Tribune's account of the release. Individual tickets are available at a $650 platinum level or a $450 gold level, with table packages offered for groups of eight and 10 guests.
Guests can also underwrite a City Ballet dancer's dinner for $250, a contribution organizers describe as fully tax-deductible. Tickets and table packages are listed at cityballet.org/events/gala.
Where the Money Goes
Organizers say proceeds from the gala support City Ballet's performances, education and outreach programs, which the company says reach thousands of children and patrons throughout the San Diego community each year. That outreach includes performing arts education programs for kindergarten through 12th-grade students, among them a 30-week residency that gives young students in-depth exposure to ballet and culminates in a school assembly, according to City Ballet's community outreach page.
City Ballet was founded 34 years ago as a school in Pacific Beach before growing into a full company that now employs dancers from around the world, Times of San Diego reported. The 34th season already got underway in August with “Serenade,” “Rhapsody in Blue” and “Ecliptic” at UC San Diego's Epstein Family Amphitheater, and the same report notes the season continues with four more programs across San Diego County, including “American Icons” at the Balboa Theatre Oct. 24-25, “The Nutcracker” at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido Dec. 19-23, and “West Side Story,” which has its world premiere in March, before the season closes in May with the company's first full-length production of “Swan Lake,” performed with a live orchestra and an expanded corps of swans.
Discounted Rooms and Gala History
For out-of-town or celebratory guests, City Ballet says discounted rooms are available at the US Grant Hotel, located at 326 Broadway in downtown San Diego, for those who book by Oct. 14. Past galas offer a sense of the fundraising stakes: City Ballet's 2025 Glitz & Glamour Gala, also held at the US Grant, raised $357,000 to support upcoming programs and productions, according to San Diego Magazine.
Earlier galas tell a similar story of steady growth. The 2023 Pearl Jubilee, which marked 30 years in the community, drew more than 250 guests and raised more than $300,000 for the 2022-23 season, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune's society coverage. Before that, the Creating Legends Gala at the Hotel del Coronado celebrated the company's 26th anniversary and raised more than $235,000 for programs serving more than 200,000 children and patrons annually, per Ranch & Coast Magazine.
