This October, Laguna Beach is testing two things at the same time. The first free film night is set for the new Promenade on Forest on October 22. The next night, the city will set aside its Irvine Bowl sound policy for three evenings so a consultant can measure a live concert. One test is about whether the new downtown works as a gathering place after summer. The other is about whether the canyon can host big off-season shows without unsettling the streets around it. Most of the month's calendar falls on one side or the other.
The block that cost $7.2 million to make permanent
Lower Forest Avenue, between Coast Highway and Glenneyre, was first closed to cars in June 2020 as a temporary plaza that cost about $250,000. The permanent version cost $7.2 million, which City Manager Dave Kiff said came in under budget. The roadway, curbs, sidewalks and parking spaces were removed and replaced with tumbled brick, seating areas and a fountain modeled on a kelp forest.
The opposition has not gone away. As the Orange County Register reported, some community members argue the promenade cuts needed parking, takes away from the town's historic character and could make flooding worse. Kiff said the decomposed granite used in construction and the new salt-tolerant landscaping should help with drainage.
The fences first came down just before the Fourth of July. The city's Music on the Promenade series then ran Friday through Sunday evenings, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., from July 10 through August 30. So the space spent its first summer with a set schedule, and that schedule ended a month before the official ribbon-cutting on September 25. That celebration started at 6 p.m. near Bushard's Pharmacy and Moulin and doubled as Bushard's 80th anniversary and Moulin's 10th.
Bushard's, at 244 Forest Avenue, opened as a pharmacy in 1946 and still operates from its original building. Marisa Fader, who now runs the business side, described the change since July in plain terms:
"We've seen an uptick in people shopping and eating and enjoying the promenade. After seeing the fence and the jackhammer for so long, I'm happy to see people down here."
Mayor Mark Orgill said reading circles and other groups have started meeting there, and that high school students have talked about using it as a meeting space. Those are informal uses, not a scheduled series. The space is also still being finished. As of September 24, Kiff said some interior brickwork remained, the Wi-Fi speaker system still needed to be switched on, and the Coast Highway end needed a few adjustments. Existing public-art pieces by three artists, including Marlo Bartels and Larry Gill, were removed during construction, and the Arts Commission took up where to reinstall them in August.
That leaves October 22 as the first big programmed evening on the finished block.
Films on Forest, and the museum 200 yards from Main Beach
The Coast Film & Music Festival has scheduled Films on Forest for Thursday, October 22, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. on the promenade. The program pairs "Actually, It Is Rocket Science" with Stoker Shorts and adds live music and guest speakers. Food and drinks will be for sale, and the event is free and open to everyone. The festival's own advice is to bring layers because it gets cool after sunset.
The festival's other downtown venue is also new. The Surfing Heritage and Culture Center, known as SHACC, opened its permanent home at 239 Broadway on September 19 after moving from a temporary building in San Clemente. Stu News Laguna reported that the building sits about 200 yards from Main Beach and holds more than 800 surfboards, five of them connected to Duke Kahanamoku. Founder Dick Metz, 96, told the paper he grew up across the street, where his father owned a bar and restaurant facing the lifeguard tower. SHACC is open Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Within a month of opening, the building is already part of the festival. It hosts the opening-night after-party on October 16, after the SURFILMUSIC program with Lester & Kelly + Tahiti at Rivian South Coast Theater. On October 22 it holds the Land & Sea Mixer with Surfrider Foundation and Protect Our Winters from 4 to 6 p.m., which ends shortly before Films on Forest starts a few blocks away. It also screens films on three more nights: "Mariachi Matters with Anthony Small" on October 18, "The Lost Cache" and "Remaining Native" on October 23, and "The Cycle of Love" on October 24.
October on one page
| Date | Event | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Sat., Oct. 3 | Laguna Beach Books 20th anniversary, 10 a.m.–6 p.m. | 1200 S. Coast Highway |
| Sat., Oct. 3 | Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Concerts in the Canyon | Irvine Bowl |
| Oct. 3–11 | LPAPA Laguna Plein Air Painting Invitational | Heisler Park, Main Beach, downtown, Laguna Art Museum |
| Sun., Oct. 4 | Classic Car Show & Oktoberfest, 9:30 a.m.–3 p.m. | 551 Forest Avenue |
| Sun., Oct. 4 | Aloe Blacc, Concerts in the Canyon | Irvine Bowl |
| Wed., Oct. 7 | "Bea Arthur" documentary, 7 p.m. | Cultural Arts Center, 235 Forest Ave. |
| Fri., Oct. 16 | Festival opener and SHACC after-party | Rivian South Coast Theater, SHACC |
| Thu., Oct. 22 | Coast Summit by day, Films on Forest by night | Rivian South Coast Theater, the promenade |
| Fri.–Sun., Oct. 23–25 | Rainbow Body, Ben Harper, Amos Lee | Irvine Bowl |
The first weekend is presented with the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association, so the Irvine Bowl shows on October 3 and 4 overlap with the Invitational's painting events at Heisler Park, plus an October 4 event at the Festival of Arts. The car show sits across from the Festival of Arts that same Sunday. For families, the Laguna Beach Library has Mini Pumpkin Decorating on October 22 and Haunted "Gingerbread" House Decorating on October 29, both at 4 p.m.
October 23 to 25: the weekend the decibels get recorded
The closing weekend matters most for anyone who lives near the canyon. On September 22, the City Council voted 5-0 to suspend the Irvine Bowl sound policy for October 23 through 25. During those three nights, Rincon Consultants will measure sound from a live concert using directional speakers, under added work capped at $12,386. The current policy limits sound to 70 dBA at the "neighborhood sound boundary." According to Stu News, other groups have asked to use the Bowl for off-season concerts but say that limit is too strict.
The question has been open for more than a year. The council first approved a sound study and a three-day test in July 2025. After an April 21 Rincon report, city staff drafted a policy raising the limit to 75 dBA. That draft drew many public comments and was continued in June to a date not yet set. Staff are now also adding a biological review of the wildlife habitat in the open space next to the Bowl, and are looking at temporary measures such as moving speakers, limiting performances that overlap on both grounds, and putting up sound walls.
So the Ben Harper show on October 24 is also a set of measurements. Rainbow Body opens the weekend with Ignacio Maria Gomez on the 23rd. Harper headlines the 24th, and Amos Lee closes on the 25th, with Donavon Frankenreiter, G. Love and Lily Meola joining both of the last two nights. Festival co-founder Enich Harris called the two concert weekends "an annual fall tradition." Whether they can grow depends on what the meters record.
At the council meeting, Mayor Pro Tem Hallie Jones said, "I think we're threading the needle here and I think we can do it." Coast co-founder Ben Warner argued that world-class concerts need standards that make them "technically possible, while protecting the surrounding neighborhoods." The same vote set a $5 entry fee for non-festival ticketed events at the Bowl, with the money going back into the venue.
Meanwhile, at the water's edge
The same week the promenade was finished, the ocean took away some coastal access:
- Aliso Beach: Crews began repairing the ocean-side parking area on September 29 after high surf and erosion damaged it. That section was expected to reopen in about two weeks, but the date is not confirmed. The outdoor shower will stay out of service until after winter storms.
- Agate Street and Pearl Street stairs: Both are closed after a September 29 rockslide and an erosion inspection. No reopening date has been given, and the city still planned to inspect the structural caissons.
- South Laguna: La Sirena Grill closed its location at 30862 S. Coast Highway on September 20 after more than 25 years. The Mermaid Street location downtown, at 347 Mermaid St., is still open.
The next block in line
Downtown work continues past the promenade. The city's Ocean Avenue and Beach Street project covers Ocean from Forest to Coast Highway and Beach Street from Broadway to Ocean. The plan includes curb extensions to slow traffic and a wider sidewalk on Beach Street. The schedule, updated in August, calls for bidding in October 2026, a contract award in November and a construction start in the fourth quarter. That is a plan, not a groundbreaking. If it holds, the blocks between SHACC and the promenade could be fenced off around the time Sawdust Winter Fantasy opens weekends in Laguna Canyon, November 20 through December 20, and around Hospitality Night on December 4. The city lists the Hospitality Night tree lighting at 6:10 p.m. near the Peppertree Lot and Forest Avenue.
How a town designs its public spaces affects how people live there, and we follow that closely, from a brick promenade on Forest to the rules that decide what the canyon sounds like on a Saturday night. If you're thinking about what Laguna's changing downtown means for a home you own or one you're considering, the Sabatella Delair Group would be glad to walk through it with you. Work With Us.
