Vanguard Culture

San Diego International Children’s Film Festival
2025-08-16 10:00 - 17:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
The 21st San Diego International Children’s Film Festival kicked off July 27 at Comic‑Con before and will continue with a free all-day program on August 16 from 10 AM–5 PM at the San Diego Central Library. This family-friendly festival screens over 70 award-winning international short films, including animation, live action, and at least one feature, and offers filmmaker presentations and panels on topics like neurodiversity and animation. Admission is free, and attendees can RSVP for the August sessions.
August 16, 2025
10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
San Diego Central Library
330 Park Boulevard San Diego, CA 92101

Dance @ The JAI
2025-08-17 15:00 - 21:00
This joy-filled collision of music and movement brings the multi-award-winning dancer Caleb Teicher back to The Conrad—this time with Nic Gareiss, one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch,” and festival favorite Tessa Lark on violin. Expect a lively combination of folk, jazz, and swing music alongside percussive dance that celebrates Appalachia and its traditional roots from Ireland and England.
Sunday, August 17, 2025 • 3 PM & 6 PM
The Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center
7600 Fay Avenue
La Jolla, California 92037

PechaKucha Night: Reverb: Echoes of Influence
2025-08-19 18:00 - 21:00
PechaKucha Night Vol. 53 returns August 19 with the theme Reverb: Echoes of Influence. Experience a dynamic evening of 20×20 presentations as speakers explore the moments, movements, and mentors that shaped their creative paths.
Tuesday, August 19, 2025
Doors open at 6pm; stories begin at 6:30.

25th Annual LGBTQ Film Festival
2025-08-21 - 2025-08-24
Celebrate 25 years of LGBTQ+ storytelling at the San Diego LGBTQ Film Festival, August 21–24, 2025. This landmark event uplifts diverse voices through powerful films, special events, and engaging conversations. Join a vibrant community that champions inclusion, visibility, and the creative spirit of LGBTQ+ filmmakers, both emerging and established.
August 21-24, 2025

DEBUTS
2025-08-22 - 2025-08-24
This August, The Rosin Box Project present DEBUTS, a dynamic program of world premieres from celebrated choreographers Garrett Smith, Ching Ching Wong, and Artistic Director Carly Topazio. Showcasing bold new voices in contemporary ballet, these performances highlight the creative collaborative debuts between choreographers and TRBP’s exceptional artists. Don’t miss this intimate exploration of movement and innovation.

August 22 / 23 / 24
California Center for the Arts
340 N Escondido Blvd
Escondido, CA 92025

Shuuluk Wechuwvi – Where Lightning Was Born
2025-08-23
Rooted in elder wisdom, creation story, and cultural continuity, Shuuluk Wechuwvi – Where Lightning Was Born, presented by the Eyaay Ahuun Foundation, emerges as a radiant act of resistance and remembrance. This project—part of the KNAPP-Tijuana and Otay River Valley revitalization effort—confronts the decades-long degradation of a region strained by environmental injustice, economic disinvestment, and fractured planning. The area continues to suffer from rampant pollution and an unresolved sewage crisis—a crisis exacerbated by cross-border eco-mismanagement and inadequate infrastructure. Despite ongoing negotiations, binational planning often offers patchwork remedies to what is, at its core, a profound public health and ecological emergency. Shuuluk Wechuwvi responds to this crisis not with despair, but with story. Through the mediums of live performance and visual narrative, this play and comic seek to illuminate pathways toward collective healing and ecological repair. It is a love letter to the land and the people who refuse to let it be forgotten—calling forth a shared vision that is grounded in culture, responsive to community, and brave enough to demand more than short-term solutions. This is not just art—it is a call to action, a reclamation of narrative, and a step toward a truly binational, community-rooted future.

Spark Studio Soundstage
8283 Ronson Road
San Diego, CA 92111
Date & Times:
August 23rd, 2025
Two Showings: 1pm and 5pm

Asian American Dance Festival
2025-08-23 - 2025-08-31
As Asian Americans we are continually navigating our identity, weaving together our ancestral heritage with our current day lives. Through this festival, AAPI dance artists tell our stories of heritage, family, immigration, colonization, and assimilation. We remember the struggles and hardships of the first generations who came to the United States. We celebrate their resilience and triumphs. We recognize what we as Asian and Pacific Islanders inherit, and we uncover what we as Americans take on or let go of. We recognize and embrace our journey to become not just Asians and Pacific Islanders in America, but to become Asian Americans…finding our place in this melting pot of cultures.
August 23-31, 2025

KPBS San Diego Book Festival
2025-08-23 10:00 - 16:00
book festival

Let’s bring our community closer together through the shared experience of reading and discussing great books! The inaugural KPBS San Diego Book Festival on the University of San Diego campus is a free event for book lovers of all ages. Attendees will enjoy panel discussions with award-winning authors, activities, live entertainment, exhibitors including independent booksellers, and more.
Saturday, August 23, 2025
10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Presented by

Clothes Story
2025-08-25 - 2025-10-16
San Diego Mesa College Art Gallery presents Clothes Story, curated by designer Kenneth Green, celebrating the lives and contributions of African American women through fashion from 1890 to 1963. Featuring over 30 meticulously recreated garments and accessories, the exhibition tells stories of resilience, community, and cultural identity. From Victorian petticoats to sequined flapper cloaks and 60s miniskirts, each piece reveals history and personal narratives. Presented in collaboration with the San Diego African American Museum of Fine Art.
Join us for the reception on Saturday, September 6, 4 – 7 pm and for the curator talk on Wednesday, September 10, 2025, 12:45 – 2 PM.
On view through October 15, 2025
Mesa College Art Gallery

It's OK, But It Ain't Right
2025-08-30 - 2025-09-27
@christaforrestfineart

“It’s OK, But It Ain’t Right” is not your typical gallery show. This one’s messy, bold, loud, and a little uncomfortable in all the right ways. We’re diving into the in-between. That grey area between brushing it off and finally saying something. The stuff we’ve learned to live with but probably shouldn’t. This show brings together artists from across the country who are pushing back… sometimes with humor, sometimes wit heat. It’s about that moment your gut tells you something’s off, even if it’s packaged perfectly. Expect color combos that clash hard but still hit. Pieces that break the rules and make their own.
Quiet resistance, loud refusal, and everything in between.
Woodward Contemporary
3935 Harney St,
San Diego, CA 92110

Opening Reception:
August 30, 2025 • 6-9 pm
On view now – September 27, 2025
Gallery Hours: Mon. – Sat., 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM

TCHAIKOVSKY SPECTACULAR
2025-08-30 19:30 - 21:30
Conductor Stephanie Childress – Principal Guest Conductor of the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra – makes her San Diego Symphony debut in the orchestra’s annual favorite, Tchaikovsky Spectacular. Featuring some of the composer’s most celebrated works, the program also includes Chopin’s romantic Piano Concerto No. 1, delivered by Austrian pianist Kiron Atom Tellian, making his SDSO debut. You won’t want to miss the evening finale, the 1812 Overture, with a pyrotechnic display in the skies above The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park and the San Diego Bay.
The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park
222 Marina Park Way
San Diego 92101
August 30, 2025
7:30 p.m.

Soul Science Lab: Make a Joyful Noize
2025-09-04 19:30 - 21:30
Make a Joyful Noize (MAJN) is a multimedia experience that blends music, film and movement to capture the visceral and contagious energy of Black joy. Joy gives us a reason to live, even when it seems life has forsaken us. Black joy is entertainment, therapy, self-love, and salvation. It is the thing that allows us to still laugh and love.
Soul Science Lab (SSL) is a music and multimedia duo powered by Chen Lo and Asante Amin. The two are storytellers who inspire the future with hip hop, jazz, soul and stunning visuals installations. The duo’s current projects include Soundtrack ’63, Make a Joyful Noize (commissioned by Carnegie Hall), and The Renaissance Mixtape (commissioned by the Apollo Theater). SSL has released three studio albums: Footprints, The Visitor: Alter Destiny, and Plan for Paradise. SSL has also developed a culturally responsive education platform for music creatives and educators at Soul Science University—just call them innovative Afro-futuristic griots.
The Epstein Family Amphitheater
9480 Innovation Ln,
La Jolla, CA 92093
FREE. RSVP Recommended
Thur. Sept 4th
7:30 p.m.

Palpitations: The Cadence of Heartbeats
2025-09-06 - 2026-02-22
Marianela de la Hoz and Marc Urselli / Palpitations: The Cadence of Heartbeats
Palpitations is an immersive installation born from the collaboration of painter Marianela de la Hoz and Grammy Award-winning sound artist Marc Urselli. Departing from her signature miniatures, de la Hoz paints speaker cones in acrylics and mixed media, each emitting Urselli’s soundscapes composed directly in response to her imagery. The works, centered on the beating heart as a life force, explore birth, death, war, and hope—fragility met with resilience. Together, sound and image vibrate with energy, breathing life into this visceral meditation on human experience.
September 6, 2025–February 22, 2026
The San Diego Museum of Art
1450 El Prado, Balboa Park
San Diego, CA

Alfredo Castañeda: Beyond Surrealism
2025-09-06 - 2026-03-01
Alfredo Castañeda: Beyond Surrealism brings together thirty-five paintings from outstanding private collections in North America and Spain for the first museum retrospective of the artist’s work in the United States. The exhibition covers five decades of the artist’s wide-ranging international career and his unique exploration of Surrealist themes through deeply personal iconography and distinctive visual narrative.
Alfredo Castañeda (Mexico City, 1938-2010, Madrid) was one of the most prolific and impactful champions of the Surrealist movement in Latin America and in the later twentieth century. While training as an architect at the National University of Mexico, he studied with Mattias Goeritz, whose work inspired him to expand his art practice to include painting. Castañeda had practiced drawing since childhood, but he was further encouraged by an encounter with René Magritte’s work. Marked by introspection, psychological investigation, whimsy,
and an acutely self-aware sense of humor, Castañeda’s paintings have a magical realist quality and high degree of visual finish. Many scenes feature trompe l’oeil effects that call into question the artist’s trustworthiness as a narrator, as the realism the viewer sees is often at odds with the absurdities of what the artist chooses to represent. Themes of family, self, identity, and journey are all at the forefront of this striking artist’s visual vocabulary.
September 6, 2025–March 1, 2026
The San Diego Museum of Art
1450 El Prado
Balboa Park, San Diego, CA

Homegrown ArtBeat
2025-09-06 17:00 - 19:00
Homegrown ArtBeat (HART) is not just an art show—it’s a living, breathing experience of San Diego’s creative pulse.
HART invites you to step into the variety and vibrancy of San Diego’s art scene—not as a spectator, but as part of it. Through painting, photography, sculpture, textile arts, interactive performance, and live music, the event reveals how deeply art lives in our everyday surroundings, often unnoticed.
We live among artists, stories, and expression every day. This night is about making that visible—so you leave not just inspired, but more awake to the creative richness around you all the time.
This multidisciplinary celebration brings together visual art and performance in unexpected, immersive ways. Art isn’t confined to the walls—it’s happening all around you.
Saturday, September 6
5 – 7pm
Doors at 4:45pm
Union Hall Gallery
2323 Broadway # 201
San Diego, CA 92102

Follies
2025-09-10 - 2025-10-05
Haunting Broadway Classic — “Follies” at Cygnet Theatre Begins September 10. Stephen Sondheim’s “Follies” is a dazzling and bittersweet exploration of love, loss, and the passage of time. Set in a crumbling theatre, former showgirls reunite one last time, reliving their heyday and confronting the choices that shaped their lives. With iconic songs like “Broadway Baby” and “Losing My Mind,” this Tony Award-winning masterpiece blends haunting nostalgia with show-stopping spectacle in a moving celebration of dreams and regrets.
September 10, 2025 – October 5, 2025
Joseph Clayes III Stage, The Joan
2880 Roosevelt Rd
San Diego, CA 92106

Sinatra
2025-09-12 - 2025-09-13
City Ballet of San Diego brings back two audience favorites in an evening of creativity and elegance. Summer Wind, choreographed by Geoffrey Gonzalez, pays tribute to the timeless songs of Frank Sinatra with sophistication and charm. Elizabeth Wistrich’s The Seasons returns as an epic, visually stunning interpretation of Glazunov’s score, where every note comes to life through inventive choreography. Together, these works promise an evening of beauty, invention, and unforgettable ballet.
September 12-13, 2025
8:00 p.m.
Epstein Family Amphitheater
UCSD

San Diego Restaurant Week
2025-09-14 - 2025-09-21
Enjoy an 8-day edible extravaganza featuring 100+ restaurants from Oceanside to Chula Vista offering variations of multi-course menus starting at just $30. Whether you are looking to rake up a deal, create a customized dining plan, or just enjoy some new restaurants, San Diego Restaurant Week has something for everyone!
These delicious 8 days are the perfect opportunity to explore the trending food scene of Sept 2025. Make meaningful culinary connections this Restaurant Week and center it around those you love to spend the most time with or those you are just getting to know! Delicious food is a great way to connect with others and bring people together.
Tickets are not necessary but reservations are HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Sept. 14-21, 2025

San Diego Made: LIVE
2025-09-19 18:30 - 20:30
Art by Spenser Little
Celebrate creativity, culture, and community at San Diego Made: LIVE on Friday, Sept. 19 from 6:30–9:30 p.m. at the San Diego Made Factory. Part of San Diego Design Week, this free event features live art and music performances, projection mapping, open studios, food and drink specials, and an immersive design exhibition. Don’t miss sets by Austin Lara and Jack Dice, live painting by Ana Violeta, and a showcase of local artists including guest artist Spenser Little.
San Diego Made Factory
2031 Commercial St.
San Diego, CA 92113
Friday, September 19, 2025
6:30 – 9:30pm PDT.
Doors at 6:30pm

Jazz in Verse: The Rhythm of Resilience
2025-09-19 20:00 - 22:00
Step into an evening where poetry finds its pulse in the rhythm of jazz. Classic poems of resilience and connection are reimagined alongside new contemporary works. Introduced on the smooth currents of jazz. Featuring Kahill Childs on Sax, Luke Littie on Bass, Quincy Reyes on Piano, Zollie Wariner on drums and Clarence McDuffie III on trumpet.
September 19, 2025
8:00 p.m.
Dizzy’s
1717 Morena Blvd
San Diego,CA 92110
$20 at the door

Trolley Dances
2025-09-20 - 2025-09-21
In partnership with San Diego Metropolitan Transit System, SDDT has presented Trolley Dances™ for over 25 years. Trolley Dances™ was created by former Artistic Director Jean Isaacs to make dance accessible to our entire community by taking art “to the people.” Each fall, tour guides lead groups of audience members on and off the trolley to view original pieces of site-specific choreography. More than 50 community and company dancers perform at various sites.
Saturday, September 20 &
Sunday, September 21

Adams Avenue Street Fair
2025-09-20 - 2025-09-21
The 43rd annual Adams Avenue Street Fair returns September 21–22, transforming Normal Heights into Southern California’s largest free two-day music festival. With 75 musical acts across seven stages, this lively event spans ten city blocks and features carnival rides, Fern Street Circus, 300 vendors, and plenty of food. Guests can also enjoy three beer gardens pouring San Diego craft brews and local cocktails, with VIP pre-sale tickets available for beer tastings.
Saturday, September 20,2025
10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Sunday, September 21, 2025
10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Sacha’s Supper Club
2025-09-20 19:30 - 21:30
Sacha’s Supper Club proudly presents the inaugural concert of the La Jolla Music Society’s Music Without Borders series: Paris After Dark. Prepare to be transported to Paris as we tell the story of 100 years of French and American composers who helped shape the iconic soundtrack of the City of Light and Love.
This remarkable evening marks the release of Singer, Composer, Producer Sacha Boutros’ latest project, Paris After Dark, which seamlessly bridges the gap between pop and jazz by reviving timeless classics from legendary artists such as Dalida, Gilbert Bécaud, Cole Porter, Joe Dassin, Serge Gainsbourg, and Sidney Bechet.
Backed by an ensemble of exceptionally talented musicians from Paris, acclaimed singer Sacha Boutros and renowned trumpeter Stéphane Belmondo will guide you on a melodic journey, interweaving passion and storytelling into every note. This performance promises to be a mesmerizing experience that captivates the heart and soul.
Where Gershwin Meets Gainsbourg — 100 Years of Jazz in Paris
Learn more about the artist: www.lareinedujazz.com
Saturday, September 20, 2025
7:30 PM

Hidden City Film Festival
2025-09-26 - 2025-09-28
The inaugural Hidden City Film Festival (HCFF) lights up Escondido Sept. 26–28, 2025, at Regal Escondido Stadium 16 & IMAX. This three-day celebration of independent cinema features spotlight screenings, curated shorts, live filmmaker Q&As, and a closing awards ceremony. More than a festival, HCFF is a platform for emerging voices and a gathering place for storytellers and audiences to connect through film and conversation.
Sept. 26–28, 2025
All screenings at Regal Escondido Stadium 16 & IMAX (350 W Valley Pkwy), across from the California Center for the Arts, Escondido.

Idioma
2025-09-27 17:00 - 21:30
Ballet Collective San Diego is proud to present IDIOMA, an evening of dynamic, witty, and diverse contemporary ballet works by local choreographers Paulette Andalon, Tylor Bradshaw, Holly Meacham, Whitney Edwards, and Emily Miller with Guest Choreographer Holly Curran (Metropolitan Opera NYC).

Saturday, September 27, 2025
5 PM & 7:30 PM
The Baker-Baum Concert Hall
7600 Fay Ave
La Jolla, CA 92037

San Diego Music Hall of Fame
2025-09-27 18:00 - 22:30
The San Diego Music Hall of Fame returns with its 7th Annual Induction Ceremony, honoring the Class of 2025 at Vision: A Center for Spiritual Living. This year’s inductees include legendary figures such as Rosie Flores, John Reis, Kamau Kenyatta, Bob Magnusson, The Dinettes, Bart Mendoza, and Eulogio “The Soul Man” Fos. The evening features live performances, heartfelt tributes, special awards, and a celebration of San Diego’s rich musical legacy. Guests can also enjoy food, drinks, exclusive merchandise, and a silent auction.
Saturday, September 27, 2025
6 – 10:30pm
Vision: A Center for Spiritual Living
4780 Mission Gorge Pl, Suite H
San Diego, CA 92120

WASTED: save the food festival
2025-09-28 11:00 - 14:00
WASTED: save the food fest is a tastemaker event that challenges premier chefs to take food items that would typically be wasted from their kitchen and re-purpose them into delicious plates.
Enjoy small bites from top chefs focused on reducing food waste, sip on tasty mocktails, and learn about sustainable food practices through fun, interactive activities, all against the backdrop of The Soap Factory—a community hub with artist residencies, gardens, and local eats. Don’t miss your chance to vote for your favorite creations and learn a thing or two along the way.
Join us for a celebration of sustainability, local eats, and supporting those at the heart of the restaurant industry.
The Soap Factory
2995 Commercial Street
San Diego, CA 92113
Sunday, September 28, 2025
11am PDT

San Diego Italian Film feStivale: Courage
2025-10-01 - 2025-10-11
The San Diego Italian Film Festival presents its 19th annual feStivale, a showcase of the best new Italian cinema with a series of premieres varying from dramas and comedies to documentaries. Theme of this year’s festival is Courage, the strength to speak up, break barriers, and imagine new futures. Through movies and shorts, this year’s 19th feStivale invites audiences to explore the many faces of courage that shape Italian culture, challenge conventions, and inspire change. All while providing an Italian perspective and allowing for dialogues and discovery to take place. The 19th feStivale will include discussions with guest filmmakers, producers and artists, the 7th annual Ristretto Awards (our shorts competition), and the annual feSta: a party with the best in Italian food, live music, and the announcement of the winners of our Ristretto Award, all at the Museum of Photographic Arts at the Museum of Art and the Digital Gym Cinema.
October 1 – 11, 2025

Omni Intelligent
2025-10-01 - 2025-12-06
Omni Intelligent
Omni Intelligent is a group exhibition that explores the intertwined and interdependent relationships between non-human and human entities as artificial intelligence becomes an integrated part of contemporary life. The artworks suggest a departure from anthropocentrism towards a more complex, fluid, and expansive understanding of intelligence, existence, consciousness, and the self. Spanning a wide range of mediums—including scent, painting, sculpture, film, holography, game design, and ceramics— the exhibition offers the visitor a full sensory experience that speaks to the profound shifts unfolding during this pivotal moment.
Participating Artists:

Eglė Budvytytė, Lou Cantor, Ánima Correa, CROSSLUCID, Star Feliz, Rhonda Holberton, Amia Yokoyama, agustine zegers, and Marcus Zúñiga
Oct 1-Dec 6, 2025
Opening Celebration: Wednesday, October 1st, 6-8pm

Blues For An Alabama Sky
2025-10-02 - 2025-10-26
Set against the vibrant backdrop of Harlem in 1930, the play brings together a rich cast of characters who reflect the conflicting currents of the time through their overlapping personalities and politics. As the Harlem Renaissance starts to feel the bite of the Great Depression, Angel and her friends battle to keep their artistic dreams alive while invoking the image of African-American expatriate extraordinaire, Josephine Baker, as both muse and myth. And when you are a Black woman living through one of the hardest times in American history and filling the silence of social invisibility with laughter, friendship becomes the only way to keep reaching for your dreams.
Oct. 2 – Oct. 26, 2025
Blues For An Alabama Sky by Pearl Cleage
Directed by Desireé Clarke Miller
Opening Night: Friday, Oct. 3, 2025
MOXIE Theatre
6663 El Cajon Blvd Ste N
San Diego, CA 92115
