Palm Springs is about to be overrun with fans of flat roofs, breeze blocks and butterfly rooflines. Modernism Week’s fall festival returns to the city Oct. 15-18, 2026, with more than 50 activities built around midcentury modern architecture, art and design, and every event is open to the public.
The four-day gathering is the organization’s smaller fall counterpart to its 11-day February festival, according to The Palm Springs Post. Tickets are already on sale, and the lineup features architecture tours, social events and design-focused experiences, according to Modernism Week, whose website also serves as the hub for tickets and the full event schedule. The festival bills itself as a fall celebration of midcentury art, architecture and design, as reported by MyNewsLA.com.
Bus Tours and Neighborhood Walks Anchor the Schedule
Among the headline offerings is a Premier Double Decker Architectural Bus Tour, which the festival describes as an overview of the city’s most significant midcentury architectural treasures, per Modernism Week. A separate 90-minute Homes That Define Palm Springs Bus Tour will roll through some of the city’s most popular neighborhoods and residential styles, the same source notes. Ground-level programming includes a featured tour of a 1950s home in the Twin Palms neighborhood, as well as a walking tour of Frank Sinatra’s neighborhood, according to MyNewsLA.com.
Other home tours on the schedule include a stop at a late modernist home in Indian Canyons, a tour within the Blue Skies Village community, and a visit to the midcentury desert resort living community at Coco Cabana, per the same MyNewsLA.com report. Organizers are also adding a historic retrospective on music in the Coachella Valley and a screening of the film “Arthur Elrod: Desert Cool,” the outlet reports.
New This Year: Blue Skies Village, the Tram and a Pricier Dinner Series
New additions for 2026 include the festival’s first-ever tour of Blue Skies Village in Rancho Mirage and a guided tour of the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, according to the Palm Springs Post. The festival is also launching an evening dining series, with curated meals at five Palm Springs restaurants priced between $120 and $230 per person, the outlet reports. Guided tours of Sunnylands Estate, designed by architect A. Quincy Jones in 1966 and restored in 2012, remain part of the lineup, per Modernism Week.
Festival organizers have also rolled out a free digital architecture guide featuring photos, audio and video on local architecture and architects, the Palm Springs Post reports. A portion of proceeds from ticket sales benefits Modernism Week, a nonprofit organization, along with other local preservation, neighborhood and community groups, according to Modernism Week.
A Design Show With Conflicting Dates
Reports differ on the exact dates of the Palm Springs Modernism Fall Show at the Palm Springs Convention Center. One Palm Springs Post report lists the show running Oct. 16-18 with 40 national exhibitors offering decorative and fine arts, while a separate Palm Springs Post account places the show on Oct. 17-18 with a preview party on Oct. 16. The discrepancy has not been resolved by organizers.
The fall event follows a February festival that the City of Palm Springs says generated an estimated $62 million in economic impact, contributing to a cumulative total exceeding $560 million, according to the City of Palm Springs. Separately, the city has said that ticket proceeds from official Modernism Week events produced in 2025-2026 generated more than $1.1 million for local partner organizations, according to a City of Palm Springs release.
