Lunar New Year Festival: We’re gratefully galloping in the direction of the Year of the Horse, but you won’t need to await the mid-February launch the Lunar New Year to find festivities with community spirit, beautiful performances, and an auspicious outlook: The City of Monterey Park is starting the celebrating before January wraps. Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 are the dates for the free festival, which will unfurl around Downtown Monterey Park.
LEGOLAND visits Kidspace Children’s Museum: Jetting to the moon as January makes way for February isn’t in the cards for us, quite sadly, but not so sadly? There’s a chance to fashion a fanciful spacecraft, made from LEGO bricks, with a Master Model Builder at the lively lead. Kidspace in Pasadena is the spot, Jan. 30 and 31 are the dates, and a cool LEGOLAND California contest is part of the starry scene.
Restaurant Week wrap-up: While Dine LA has another week or so to go, meaning you can still find loads of prix fixe deals at hundreds of eateries, two beloved Restaurant Weeks will conclude their 2026 engagements in the days just ahead: Long Beach Black Restaurant Week and Pasadena Cheeseburger Week must bid grateful diners farewell, at least for this gourmet-good go-around, as January ends.
Robert Therrian: This is a Story: Visitors to The Broad, that wonderland of contemporary art located on Grand Avenue in DTLA, often cite a certain oversized dining table as a personal and playful favorite. The museum is honoring the late artist behind that memorable piece in this ticketed exhibit, a show that has two more months, and a handful of days, still to go. Uplifting art awaits, and the chance to view everyday objects in a fresh way.
Griffith Observatory’s “Celestial Globe”: As mentioned, rocketing to the deep reaches of the cosmos isn’t on our calendar this weekend, but checking out this new work, the Griffith Park astronomy institution’s very first “major” new exhibit in over 19 years, is a definite possibility. This stellar sphere, an 800-pound piece, features dozens of constellations and is on view in Gravity’s Stairway. Entry to the observatory is free, an ongoing gift of cosmically cool proportions.