{"id":416830,"date":"2026-07-29T18:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T18:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/416830\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T18:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T18:00:09","slug":"2-hours-from-l-a-this-coastal-city-is-hosting-its-largest-free-street-music-festival-on-over-7-city-blocks-with-250-vendors-2-stages-and-over-70000-visitors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/416830\/","title":{"rendered":"2 hours from L.A., this coastal city is hosting its largest free street music festival on over 7 city blocks \u2014 with 250+ vendors, 2 stages and over 70,000 visitors"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Hillcrest<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCredit: Fabulous Hillcrest.<\/p>\n

Just a couple hours south of L.A.<\/a>, one neighborhood<\/a> is about to shut down its streets for the biggest party<\/a> of the summer<\/a>. CityFest returns to San Diego on Sunday, August 9, and organizers are calling it the city\u2019s largest and best art and music festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What is CityFest?<\/p>\n

CityFest takes place in Hillcrest, widely recognized as the LGBTQ+ hub of San Diego. CityFest honors Hillcrest\u2019s 40-year legacy as the heart of\u00a0San Diego\u2019s\u00a0LGBTQ+ community. The festival is an annual, day-to-night celebration that takes over 5th Avenue for a full day<\/a> of music, art, food, and community. <\/p>\n

What to expect<\/p>\n

CityFest takes over 5th Avenue from 12 p.m. to 11 p.m., stretching nearly half a mile across more than 7 city blocks. The event is expected to draw over 70,000 visitors from across San Diego<\/a> and Southern California<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Music runs all day across two separate stages, giving festival-goers a mix of live bands and electric dance music DJs to move between throughout the afternoon and evening. Whether the crowd wants to catch a full band set or dance to a DJ\u2019s set, there\u2019s a stage built for both, keeping the energy going from the early afternoon well into the night. <\/p>\n

250+ vendors and community booths<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Fabulous Hillcrest.<\/p>\n

Beyond the music, CityFest is just as much about what\u2019s happening on the ground. More than 250 vendors line the streets, offering everything from handcrafted art and jewelry to local food and specialty goods.<\/p>\n

In addition, for the first time, CityFest is adding a ticketed Wine Garden<\/a>, located in Mural Alley and open from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. The space invites guests 21 and older to sip and sample from three participating wineries: Cork & Stem, Negociant Winery, and Pali Wine Co.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udccdUniversity Ave & 5th Ave
\ud83d\uddd3\ufe0f Sunday, August 9
\u23f0 12 PM\u201311 PM
\ud83c\udf9f\ufe0f Free Admission<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Fabulous Hillcrest. Just a couple hours south of L.A., one neighborhood is about to shut down its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[48,52,51,47,50,49],"class_list":["post-416830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}