Things to Do in Palm Springs This Weekend, Any Weekend of the Year

This page answers one question on any weekend of the year: what is actually happening across Greater Palm Springs, and what to do when the answer is not much. It covers Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Desert Hot Springs, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, Indian Wells, La Quinta, Indio and Coachella.

It is not a list of this weekend’s concerts. Those are wrong within seven days. What follows is where to look, what runs every week regardless, what each month of the season brings, and what still works when nothing is on.

How to find out what’s on this weekend, in about a minute

No single calendar covers this valley. Four or five do between them, and each one misses something the others catch. Start at the top of this list and stop when you have an answer.

Visit Greater Palm Springs

The regional tourism bureau runs the widest calendar in the valley — all nine cities, filterable by date, category and city, plus a this-weekend view that rolls over on its own. If you only check one thing, check this.

What it misses: it runs on submissions and member listings, so it leans toward ticketed events and anything with a marketing budget. A good band at a neighborhood bar usually will not be on it.

The city calendars

Every city runs its own, and they are not equally useful.

• Palm Springs — real events are in there, but council agendas, commission meetings and recreation classes outnumber them by a wide margin. Use the category filter or you will be reading planning notices.
• Palm Desert — runs through the city’s Discover Palm Desert site and is the best organized of the set: month and list views, keyword search, and calendar export.
• Cathedral City — same split. The city’s own .gov calendar is meetings; the actual events live on Discover Cathedral City.
• Indio — one calendar for everything, so park closures and maintenance notices sit alongside festivals.
• La Quinta — thin. Often two or three upcoming items, most of them civic.
• Indian Wells — small, and mostly council business and resident-club events.

The casinos

Four casinos carry most of the touring music and comedy that comes through here, and between them there is something on almost every weekend of the year, indoors and air conditioned. This is the part of the valley calendar that does not take the summer off.

• Agua Caliente — one dated calendar covering all three properties, Rancho Mirage, Palm Springs and Cathedral City. What The Show is like.
• Fantasy Springs, Indio — no single dated calendar; each venue has its own page and ticketing hands off to a third party. What the Special Events Center is like.
• Spotlight 29, Coachella — a plain dated list with show times, door times and age limits, which is more than most of them manage. What the showroom is like.
• Morongo, Cabazon — about twenty-five minutes west on I-10, so not technically the valley, but close enough to count on a Saturday.

What they miss: anything outside their own walls. A casino calendar will never tell you about a street fair.

Our rundown of the rooms themselves: Coachella Valley concert and event venues.

Acrisure Arena

The valley’s big indoor room, out in Thousand Palms. Touring concerts, comedy, family shows, and Coachella Valley Firebirds hockey from October into spring, which quietly fills a lot of otherwise empty weekends. The events page has grid, list and calendar views.

What it misses: it books a few months ahead, so anything further out than that looks emptier than it will be. More on the building: what Acrisure Arena is really like.

The Plaza Theatre

Restored and operating again on Palm Canyon Drive downtown. Its calendar runs roughly two months out and covers concerts, comedy and theatre. What the Plaza is like now.

Museums and gardens

These three change with the season, which is the part people get wrong.

• Palm Springs Art Museum — open Thursday noon to 8, Friday through Sunday 10 to 5, closed Monday through Wednesday. Admission is free on Thursday evenings from 5 to 8, paid for by the city.
• The Living Desert, Palm Desert — hours flip with the season: 8 to 5 from October 1 through May 31, and 7 to 1:30 from June 1 through September 30, with last admission an hour before close. Advance tickets required. What to expect.
• Sunnylands, Rancho Mirage — the Center and Gardens are free, Wednesday through Sunday, 8:30 to 4, and closed to the public every summer from early June to mid-September. House tours are ticketed and released in monthly blocks at 9 a.m. Pacific on the 15th of the preceding month, which is the detail people miss. Free gardens or a house tour.

What’s on by time of year

The season here runs October through May. Each month has one or two things big enough to build a weekend around, and knowing which month you are in gets you most of the way to an answer.

October — the season restarts

The valley comes back to life in October. The Living Desert returns to 8-to-5 hours on October 1, and Indian Canyons and Tahquitz Canyon go back to seven days a week on October 2 after their summer weekends-only schedule. Firebirds hockey opens at Acrisure Arena. Modernism Week runs a four-day Fall Preview in October, a smaller version of the February event. The Joshua Tree Music Festival holds its fall edition this month.

More: Joshua Tree Music Festival parking and camping

November — Pride, then Thanksgiving

Palm Springs Pride takes the first full weekend of November, with the parade downtown on Sunday morning. It is the busiest downtown weekend outside festival season, and parking is the whole problem. Thanksgiving week fills hotels across the valley.

More: Pride parking and getting home

December — lights, parades and New Year’s Eve

The Palm Springs Festival of Lights Parade runs the first Saturday in December, down South Palm Canyon Drive. Candy Cane Lane in Cathedral City is the other reliable fixture. New Year’s Eve is its own animal, and downtown is closed to cars for it.

More: The Festival of Lights parade · Where to see the lights · Candy Cane Lane · Christmas in Palm Springs · New Year’s Eve

January — film, then golf

The Palm Springs International Film Festival runs about twelve days in early-to-mid January and takes over several downtown screens, including the Plaza. The American Express golf tournament follows in the second half of the month at PGA West and La Quinta Country Club, and brings concerts with it.

More: The film festival guide · How to attend it without losing your mind · The American Express

February — Modernism Week and the Date Festival

Modernism Week runs eleven days starting the second Thursday of February, spans two weekends, and books out early. The Riverside County Fair and National Date Festival takes most of February at the fairgrounds in Indio, now in separate Thursday-through-Sunday blocks rather than one continuous run, so check which days are actually open before driving down. Presidents Day weekend and the Super Bowl both land this month.

More: Modernism Week · Are the home tours worth the price · Is the Date Festival worth going to · Presidents Day weekend · Where to watch the Super Bowl

March — tennis

The BNP Paribas Open runs two weeks at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, usually early-to-mid March, sometimes starting in the last days of February. It is the largest ticketed event in the valley outside April, and the grounds pass on a weekday is the value play.

More: The BNP Paribas Open guide · Food and drink at the tournament · St. Patrick’s Day

April — Coachella, then Stagecoach

Coachella takes the second and third weekends of April at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, and Stagecoach takes the weekend immediately after. That is three consecutive weekends where traffic, hotel rates and restaurant waits change across the entire valley whether or not you hold a ticket. Plan around it either way.

More: Coachella dates and what’s confirmed · The Coachella guide · Stagecoach · Festival traffic: what to avoid

May — the last of it

Memorial Day is the usual end point. The farmers markets and the El Paseo art walk finish for the season, the Joshua Tree Music Festival holds its spring edition, and hotel rates start falling in the second half of the month.

Summer, June through September

June through September is dead here, and any guide that tells you otherwise is selling something. Daytime highs sit well above 100, a lot of the valley’s seasonal calendar simply stops, and outdoor plans need to be finished before mid-morning or started after sunset.

What actually changes:

• Sunnylands closes to the public from early June to mid-September.
• Indian Canyons and Tahquitz Canyon drop to Friday, Saturday and Sunday only from July 6 through October 1.
• The Living Desert opens at 7 and closes at 1:30 from June 1 through September 30.
• The Old Town La Quinta farmers market and the El Paseo art walk go dark until the fall.
• VillageFest keeps running but starts an hour later, 7 to 10 instead of 6 to 10.
• The Palm Springs farmers market keeps running but moves indoors to the Pavilion.
• The Aerial Tramway closes for roughly a month of preventative maintenance each September.

What still works: the casinos and Acrisure Arena, which are indoors and do not care what month it is; the Tramway, where it is thirty degrees cooler at the top; water, in whatever form you can get it; and leaving. Idyllwild is an hour up the hill and Big Bear is two.

More: Beating a desert heatwave · What to know before riding the Tram · Idyllwild as a day trip · Big Bear without the chaos

What happens every week, all year

Before checking any calendar, it is worth knowing what runs on a fixed schedule. Several of these shift or stop in summer, which is noted where it applies.

VillageFest — Thursday

Palm Canyon Drive closes to traffic downtown and becomes a street fair: produce, crafts, food, buskers. October through May it runs 6 to 10; June through September it starts an hour later, 7 to 10. It is the most reliable weeknight thing in the valley and it has never taken a season off.

Things to know before you go · Official site

Farmers markets — Thursday through Sunday, mostly in season

The Palm Springs Certified Farmers Market runs Saturday mornings, 8 to 1, year round — outdoors at the Palm Springs Cultural Center on East Baristo from October to May, and indoors at the Palm Springs Pavilion from June to September.

Down valley, a separate operator runs seasonal markets in Indian Wells on Thursday, Rancho Mirage on Friday and Old Town La Quinta on Sunday, 8 to 1, October through May. All three go dark for the summer.

Art walks — first Wednesday and first Friday

The Backstreet Art District in Palm Springs opens its studios the first Wednesday of every month, 5 to 7, and it runs year round, holidays included.

First Friday on El Paseo in Palm Desert runs the first Friday of the month, 4 to 7, at The Gardens, and finishes for the season in April.

Free Thursday nights at the Palm Springs Art Museum

Admission is free every Thursday from 5 to 8, funded by the City of Palm Springs, and it runs through the summer. It lines up with VillageFest two blocks away, which makes for a decent no-cost Thursday.

The Indio Open Air Market — Wednesday and Saturday nights

An open-air swap meet on Arabia Avenue in Indio, 4 to 10 on Wednesday and Saturday. It closes during the annual fair. Not for everyone, but it is genuinely weekly and genuinely local.

Firebirds hockey — most weekends, October into spring

The Coachella Valley Firebirds play at Acrisure Arena through the AHL season, which means a home game on a lot of Friday and Saturday nights from October onward. Cheaper than a concert and indoors.

Casino showrooms — every weekend, all year

Between the four casinos above there is almost always something on Friday and Saturday. In July and August this is most of the valley’s live entertainment.

When nothing is on

Plenty of weekends have no event worth the drive. These hold up regardless, and none of them need a ticket bought in advance.

Walk Palm Canyon Drive

If you are anywhere near downtown Palm Springs this is the easiest win: coffee, shops, galleries and people-watching with no planning. The trick is actually stopping somewhere rather than pacing up and down in the sun.

Indian Canyons

The most reliable outdoor option near Palm Springs in the cooler months. The entrance is at the south end of Palm Canyon Drive, hours are 8 to 5 with the last vehicle in at 4, and from July 6 to October 1 it is open Friday through Sunday only. Andreas Canyon is the short, flat, shaded one if you do not want a real hike.

Our Indian Canyons guide · The best hikes in there

The Aerial Tramway

When the valley floor is unbearable, the Tram is the shortcut. It is roughly thirty degrees cooler at the top and the terrain is nothing like what you left. Lines build on weekends, and it shuts for about a month of maintenance each September.

What to know before riding the Tram

A short, realistic hike

• Tahquitz Canyon, Palm Springs — a short marked hike to a waterfall, from the visitor center on West Mesquite. Ticketed, and on the same summer schedule as Indian Canyons: Friday through Sunday only from July 6 to October 1. Go early.
• Andreas Canyon, Palm Springs — flat, shaded by palms, a creek most of the year, and short enough that it does not eat the day.
• Bump and Grind, Palm Desert — a steady climb with big views and no technical nonsense. Access is from the Mike Schuler trailhead on Painters Path or the Herb Jeffries trailhead at Cahuilla Hills Park; the old Rancho Mirage trailhead is gone, and the top of the trail above the gate is subject to seasonal closure, so check with the city first.
• Whitewater Preserve, Whitewater — free, open 8 to 5, with a shaded picnic area and a creek at the bottom of the canyon. The easiest green place within half an hour of Palm Springs.

Whitewater Preserve · How crowded Joshua Tree gets · Joshua Tree from the valley side

Eat properly instead

Sometimes the weekend plan is a long meal and no schedule, and the valley is good at that. Eat first, then do things, rather than ending up in line somewhere sunburned and negotiating over pancakes.

Best breakfast and brunch · Best happy hours · Ten things to eat and drink here · Doing it cheap

If you only have one day

Do not try to cover several cities. Pick one and build around it. Distances here are deceiving, the midday heat is undefeated most of the year, and holiday weekends change everything.

• Morning: coffee and something outdoors — a canyon, a walk, a neighborhood.
• Midday: lunch indoors, or a museum.
• Afternoon: shops, galleries, or the pool.
• Evening: dinner, then a show, live music or a bar.

Coachella Valley pro tips · Checkout at 11, flight at 5

Month by month

Every month here has a different problem and a different reason to come. Each of these covers the weather, what is open, what is closed, what is on, and what it costs.

• January – peak season, the film festival and the golf
• February – Modernism Week and the Date Festival at once
• March – the tennis, the best weather, the wind
• April – Coachella and Stagecoach
• May – the handover month
• June – the heat arrives and things start closing
• July – the hottest month, and the monsoon
• August – the emptiest month, and the one that floods
• September – still summer, whatever the calendar says
• October – the valley switches back on
• November – the best month, and the cheapest good one
• December – parades, lights and snow up the tram

Holiday weekends have their own: Presidents Day · Memorial Day · Labor Day · Halloween · Thanksgiving

Related guides

• Things to do in the Coachella Valley
• Events and festivals in the Coachella Valley
• Concert and event venues, and what they’re like
• Day trips under two hours
• The Salton Sea and the day trip that actually works
• Food and drink specials around the valley

One caveat: hours, seasons and admission change, and the summer schedules above are the ones most likely to move. Confirm with the venue before you drive.