Pageant of the Masters

The Pageant of the Masters, in Laguna Beach, offers you the opportunity to sit in awe as you watch their annual performance. Where they bring art to life, right before your eyes!

The Pageant of the Masters has performed every year since 1933, that’s over 75 years! The Irvine Bowl provides the venue for the “Pageant of the Masters”. This live show is held nightly at 8:30 pm (just after dusk) with the first show of the season typically starting after July 4th and the last show typically ending at the end of August.

Each year you will enjoy a different theme for the Pageant of the Masters. However, the "tableau vivant" is held true with each performance.

Ninety seconds have never been so breathtaking! You will sit in silence and gasp in awe as you study each presentation of living art. Each scene emerges from a stage absent of light and suddenly emerges a masterpiece in front of your eyes.

You will search for a blinking eye, a hand movement or any such clue to direct you to the actual artistic performers. And as suddenly as these masterpieces appear, 90 seconds later they fade back into night with the absence of light.

A picture is worth a thousand words, oh how true! You will find it difficult to describe the magical creations when you retell your experience!!! Especially when you watch the living art displays, listen to the full orchestra and the live narration … you will ask and want to know …. “How did they do that??”

Pageant of the Masters Tips

• Order your tickets the very first day and the very first hour they go on sale! 1-800-487-3378. Tickets go on sale December 1st online or January 15th by phone. You will get a busy signal… keep calling back! You want to get a ticket agent early because seats sell out FAST! Plus if you try to buy them somewhere else you might get ripped off with higher prices. If they exceed reasonable markup values, call the Ticket Office to report the offender.
• All seats in the Irvine Bowl are good seats. If you want great seats then make sure you sit in the front or middle of the loge section. Seats are numbered by odd numbers. If you buy 2 tickets and the seats are 1 and 3 ... don't worry ... you are sitting next to each other!
• There are also a few sections for wheelchair accessibility.
• No children under the age of 4 allowed. All persons must be able to sit in their seat quietly through the ENTIRE performance. Therefore, I recommend no child under 13.
• Bring binoculars, you will have fun seeing if you can tell “where the real people are” and then “if they move or blink!”
• Arrive early! Not just to the show, but to find parking!
• Paid parking available across from the Pageant, however it is difficult to find a space, so don’t count on finding one.
• Use the Act V Parking, you can find it at 1900 Laguna Canyon Road on the right hand side of the road one mile before you hit main Laguna. Parking is $7 per day and you can take the free Trolley to the Pageant. Allow for parking time, and Trolley transit time.

  Laguna Beach Festival's Service called “Catch the Wave” is FREE!!!! It’s a shuttle service from the end of June to the end of August with continuous service from 9:30 am to 11:30 pm. Special July 4th hours from 9:30 am to 5:00 pm. Transit info 949-497-0766.

• You must arrive BEFORE the Pageant of the Masters starts or you will be turned away and not allowed to enter until intermission – this is a huge bummer because you are missing so much!!
• Bring a light jacket or blanket and a seat cushion. I could have sworn someone turned on the air conditioning in the OPEN AIR AMPITHEATRE!!! (haha) It got cold about an hour into the show and I wished I had a jacket. I’m used to chilly nights but when you add the cold coastal breeze and you’re sitting in a chair for a few hours – anyone would get cold!!

• Pageant of the Masters
  • 650 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach, CA 92651
  • (949) 494-1145 Call weekdays during office hours
• Tivoloi Terrace
  • 650 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach, CA 92651
  • (949) 494-9650

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