24 Can’t-Miss Events to Check Out in 2024

---

---

Deborah Butterfield

Through June 24 The mystery and majesty of the equine form has long captivated Deborah Butterfield, a UC Davis grad whose five-decade career is the focus of her retrospective at the school’s Manetti Shrem Museum titled P.S. These are not horses. The exhibit’s name hints at the highly conceptual nature of more than a dozen figurative pieces on display: For example, a horse sculpture called John represents a “portrait” of her husband John Buck (also an artist and UCD alum), while those made of materials like plastic debris address environmental issues. Giddyup for the Manetti Shrem’s Winter Celebration event on Jan. 28, when the museum will welcome visitors to see Butterfield’s work alongside other early-year exhibits, including paintings by Iranian-born artist Shiva Ahmadi in her first solo museum show on the West Coast. manettishremmuseum.ucdavis.edu

Six: The Musical

Jan. 31–Feb. 11 “Tudor London is the place to be if you’re looking for a sextet of truly empowered, empowering megastars,” raved The New York Times after this British musical swept onto the Great White Way two years ago with its catchy treatment of the travails of Henry VIII’s infamously ill-fated wives. Proudly taking a page from the likes of Hamilton, Six—which will be staged by Broadway Sacramento in the days leading up to Valentine’s Day—remixes history with a healthy dose of viral pop and hip-hop as Catherine of Aragon (banished), Anne Boleyn (beheaded) and Catherine Howard (also beheaded) sing alongside their fellow doomed damsels in a contest to determine which one had it the worst. Creators Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss—who took home the 2022 Tony Award for best original score—drew inspiration from modern music royalty like Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez and Adele for their characters, making this a musical for the ages in more ways than one. broadwaysacramento.com

Valentine’s Day Behind-the-Scenes Zoo Tours

Feb. 9–14 Lions and tigers and love birds, oh my! When it comes to the life science of mating, we could all take a cue or two from the animal kingdom, and for nearly a week leading up to Valentine’s Day, the Sacramento Zoo welcomes visitors on tours that showcase its myriad feathered, fluffy and scaly dwellers through the lens of love. Guides will lead small groups on intimate behind-the-scenes tours (which start at $40 per person) to learn all about breeding behavior, courtship and family life for zoo residents—including a “dating program” that helps animals couple up as part of the facility’s Species Survival Plan. You can also have your Valentine’s-themed photo taken with your new furry friends—and maybe pet an okapi or feed a cheetah. To which we say, zoo la la. saczoo.org

City of Trees Parade

March 9 “Mardi Gras is a celebration of place, people and culture—and Sacramento has not celebrated itself enough,” says Wes Samms, lead organizer for the City of Trees Parade and Mardi Gras Festival. Now in its third year, this fête merges the traditions of New Orleans’ iconic annual roving street party with the spunky hometown spirit of River City, complete with 100% recycled beads tossed into the crowd from massive, homemade light-up vehicles dreamed up by local artists. An estimated 30,000 participants will help honor Sacramento over two separate parades (one including four-legged party animals—pets, that is), with the event anointing a Mardi Gras King and Queen in recognition of their highnesses’ contributions to our community. Food trucks, musical performances and regional groups like Bike Party Sacramento and the UC Davis Marching Band will round out the fun, which will stretch from Capitol Mall to Old Sacramento. curiositycollaborative.org

Zora and Langston

March 1–17 As two of the most celebrated figures of the Harlem Renaissance, Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes endure today as writers and visionaries whose work chronicled the Black experience in the first half of the 20th century. They were also briefly close friends, until their relationship splintered from jealousy, miscommunication, and an explosive copyright dispute over their only collaboration, the play Mule Bone. Making her writing debut at the Black-focused theater company Celebration Arts, 31-year-old Sacramento actor-director Imani Mitchell brings to the stage her own telling of the story behind the project that destroyed the Hurston-Hughes partnership. Zora and Langston is the second play presented as part of “Black Girl Magic,” a full season of Celebration Arts shows written and directed by Black women. celebrationarts.net

Fade

March 13–April 14 A Mexican-born playwright turned television writer for shows like HBO’s Looking and ABC’s How To Get Away with Murder, Tanya Saracho penned the semi-autobiographical play Fade as a way of grappling with the difficulty of her first year in Hollywood. The tight, two-person dramedy captures the relationship between Lucia, a Mexican novelist hired to write for television, and the sole other Latinx staffer at her new job: a janitor named Abel. The Chicago Tribune lauded Saracho’s 2016 work as “fresh, funny and highly enjoyable … both a conversational pas de deux and a good night out with stuff to say.” Brought to life at Capital Stage by local director Dena Martinez, Fade delves into race, class and the meaning of Mexican American culture, with plenty of laughs to spare along the way. capstage.org

John Mulaney

April 19 Judge for yourself if Seth Meyers had it right when he said of his fellow Saturday Night Live alum John Mulaney, “For my money, he’s the funniest person in America.” Indeed, after cutting his teeth as a writer for SNL, Mulaney has since spun comic gold with acclaimed Netflix specials such as his instant classic Radio City Music Hall appearance Kid Gorgeous, and The Comeback Kid, where he described his vibe as “Hey, you could pour soup in my lap, and I’d probably apologize to you.” After struggles with addiction, intervention and recovery as recounted in his Emmy-nominated 2023 show Baby J, the famously dapper comedian looks to humble-swag his way into Thunder Valley with a new set of brutally honest comedy. The funniest person in America? Perhaps. The funniest person in Lincoln? For a night this April, without a doubt. thundervalleyresort.com

Sacramento Midnight Film Festival

April 24-28 Don’t let the name fool you: The “midnight” in this movie binge-fest at midtown’s tiny, 23-seat Dreamland Cinema has less to do with the starting times—roughly 7 p.m. to 9 p.m––than with the underground, “midnight movie” vibe of the films being shown, including a range of freaky flicks from right here in River City. (Local filmmakers can submit entries through Feb. 29). This second annual event will showcase roughly two dozen features and shorts from around the globe, and while this year’s lineup is yet to be set, to give you an idea, last year’s faves included the 2022 dark comedy Chicken House, and the anti-fascist animated feature Unicorn Wars, billed as “Bambi meets Apocalypse Now.” Film buffs can buy individual screening tickets or a festival badge for full access to the program—collect ’em all, and you might just score bragging rights for predicting the next Rocky Horror Picture Show or Pink Flamingos. thedreamlandcinema.com

California Honey Festival

May 4 That buzz you hear every May is probably coming from Bee City USA—better known as Woodland, which has held that official designation since 2019 and has hosted the crowd-pleasing California Honey Festival since 2017. The annual event celebrates our busy friends with honey tastings, beehive exhibits, an educational Honey Lab to teach kids about the importance of bees to the environment (did you know almost $12 billion of California’s agriculture relies on pollination?), honey cooking demos taught by chefs from Nugget Markets (think honey cashew chicken lumpia and honey fried rice), and locally produced honey wine in the Beer Mead Garden. By popular demand, this year’s honey party is expanding to add two more hours, now welcoming guests to stick around until 7 p.m. californiahoneyfestival.com

Don Giovanni

May 11 It’s a comedy! It’s a melodrama! It’s a ghost story! Mozart’s uproarious masterpiece about Seville’s most notorious womanizer is often regarded as the greatest opera ever composed. And this year, it concludes the Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera’s current season with a staging in its original Italian. (Don’t worry—you can follow along with the title character’s tragicomic exploits via supertitles projected inside the SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center.) Globally renowned Israeli director Omer Ben Seadia will guide the production alongside Nashville Ballet music director and principal conductor Ming Luke, who will take the podium to lead nearly two dozen chorus members, almost four dozen musicians, and a cast of lead performers drawn from across the nation. Rock us, Amadeus. sacphilopera.org

Wanda Sykes

May 31 “I’m a Black, gay woman,” Wanda Sykes once quipped. “The only way to make the GOP hate me more is if I sent them a video of me rolling around on a pile of welfare checks.” Sykes’ sardonic wit and razor-sharp social commentary have fueled Emmy Award-winning work in the ’90s as a writer for The Chris Rock Show, six comedy specials (including 2023’s I’m an Entertainer on Netflix), and her stint guest-hosting The Daily Show last January. Add to this her memorable TV roles on the likes of Curb Your Enthusiasm, The New Adventures of Old Christine and Black-ish, and it’s no wonder The Guardian has praised Sykes as a “comic legend.” The Mondavi Center crowd can expect her trademark side-splitting blend of the personal and political as Sykes brings her latest show, Please & Thank You, to Davis on her first major tour in six years. mondaviarts.org

Sacramento Pride

June 8 & 9 Sacramento has the distinction of being the capital of the state with the largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender population in America—more than 2.7 million people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. With this in mind, where better to celebrate this vibrant, dynamic community than on Capitol Mall at the colossal two-day Sacramento Pride bash? Marking its 45th anniversary this June, Sacramento Pride continues its downtown celebration of the River City’s thriving LGBTQ+ culture with two stages of entertainment (like an expected performance by the Sacramento Gay Men’s Chorus and the event’s raucous drag showcase), hundreds of booths, dozens of food trucks, and a can’t-miss parade along 10th Street from Southside Park to the Capitol building. Previous years have seen more than 20,000 people turn out for the full weekend of revelry. That’s yet one more thing Sacramento can be proud of. sacramentopride.org

Carmina Burana

June 8 & 9 From concerts to movie trailers, rap samples to video games, commercials to sporting events, few classical music pieces have penetrated global pop culture as enduringly—and inescapably—as the “O Fortuna” theme of Carmina Burana. But recordings don’t do justice to the sensory eruption of Carl Orff’s 1937 masterpiece heard live in a concert hall. Indeed, the Folsom Lake Symphony promises to end its landmark 20th season this June on a (very) high note: The performance at the Harris Center will unite the group with 150 choral singers from around the region (including members of the Music in the Mountains Chorus, Northern California Children’s Chorus and Sacramento Master Singers) for the first time ever, and feature solos from nationally renowned soprano Carrie Hennessey, tenor Daniel Ebbers, and baritone Ralph Cato. harriscenter.net

Marysville Peach Festival

July 19 & 20 Peachy abundance knows no bounds at this annual event, where visitors can savor the quintessential taste of summer with such delicacies as peach churros, peach kettle corn, prosciutto and peach pizza, peach cobblers, or best of all, a dazzling bite from one of the ripe, juicy namesake fruits fresh from the orchard. You can also fuel up at the festival’s Peach and Pancake Breakfast ahead of a 5K run/walk through Marysville’s Riverfront Park, or watch peach-pie-eating contests. Save room for one last pit stop for signature peach-glazed ribs from Ozark Backwoods BBQ and Silver Dollar Saloon, both recent winners of the festival’s Tasty Treat Competition. marysvillepeachfest.com

Waitress: The Musical

Aug. 6–11 It’s time to head back to Joe’s Pie Diner. Based on the cult film of the same name, this equally popular stage adaptation—which premiered on Broadway in 2016 and boasts music and lyrics by Sara Bareilles—follows Jenna, a waitress at the diner whose unhappy marriage and unexpected pregnancy prompt her to find salvation—and a new romance—through creative concoctions like “I Hate My Husband Pie” and “Falling in Love Chocolate Mousse Pie.” Look for finely measured amounts of sugar, butter, flour and laughter, along with songs like “She Used To Be Mine” and “Opening Up,” to light up the stage as part of this year’s Music Circus lineup, where Waitress will join an impressive summer slate that also includes Fiddler on the Roof, 42nd Street and Jersey Boys. broadwaysacramento.com

Pickleball

Aug. 14–Sept. 22 Audiences largely know the actor Jeff Daniels through his film, TV and stage performances, including his early work in the Oscar-winning tear-jerker Terms of Endearment and his Emmy-winning turn on the HBO series The Newsroom. But Daniels’ side hustle as a playwright has also kept Sacramentans entertained since 1996, when his comedy Escanaba in da Moonlight played at his friend Timothy Busfield’s then-upstart B Street Theatre. This summer, B Street mounts Daniels’ 2022 play Pickleball, a satirical spin on the fast-growing sport that follows a quartet of middle-aged players through a cutthroat tournament. After its world premiere at the actor-writer’s own Purple Rose Theatre in Michigan, a local reviewer borrowed a term from the game to proclaim the work “a slam ‘dink’ comedy for the times.” Suffice it to say that if you’re shy about hitting the court yourself, Daniels and the B Street company will bring the thrill of the game to you—no ace serve required. bstreettheatre.org

Japanese Food & Cultural Bazaar

Aug. 10 Only one event in Sacramento has the distinction of serving up 5,500 pounds of rice, 500 pounds of noodles, 500 pounds of shrimp and 100 gallons of soy sauce—and that’s just in a single day. Prepare yourself for a filling—and enriching—bounty at the Japanese Food & Cultural Bazaar this year: Like last year, the event will be a one-day affair (scaled down from their previous weekend-long festivities) with an event that, pre-2020, drew at least 20,000 visitors for a celebration of food, art and performances. Past bazaars have been feasts for the other senses too, with ikebana (Japanese flower arrangements), as well as performances from groups like Sacramento Taiko Dan, and hands-on calligraphy and bonsai trimming. As the Buddhist Church of Sacramento—which has been hosting this beloved tradition since 1947—marks its 125th anniversary in 2024, you can expect other commemorations throughout the year. But only at this one can you celebrate with oodles of Udon noodles and tons (literally) of foodie fun. buddhistchurch.org

Politically Charged

Aug. 31–Oct. 5 Wherever you sit on the political spectrum, there’s no denying the volatility of the past few American election cycles. But what if, instead of fighting on social media or simply tuning out the rage, we processed our challenging era through art? That’s the question Roseville’s Blue Line Arts gallery asks and strives to answer with its quadrennial exhibition Politically Charged. The show comprises paintings, collages, quilts, photography, woodcuts, and more from roughly 60 artists, all using their work to interpret the political impact of crises ranging from homelessness to gun violence. The final selections for this year’s collection haven’t been made, but pieces in 2020 ranged from cheeky (a painting that depicted several Democratic party leaders digging holes to bury their heads in the sand, and an open manuscript book that electronically displayed then-President Trump’s tweets in real time and was set upon a golden commode) to sublime (a stained-glass collage composing the letters “BLM”)—a testament to the power of art to surprise and inspire, even in a fraught election year. bluelinearts.org

Sac Open Studios

Sept. 14–22 With hundreds of stunning murals splashing our streets and alleyways with color and museums brimming with masterworks by local legends like Wayne Thiebaud and Gregory Kondos, our region could easily rebrand itself as the brush-to-canvas capital. And every fall, local artists offer a peek into their garrets and garages so we can see where it all starts with this free, self-guided studio tour that attracts more than 30,000 art lovers over two weekends. Organized by Verge Center for the Arts, this year’s Open Studios event is expected to feature an estimated 300 artists pulling back the curtain on their creativity, from the eccentric ceramics of Linda Fitz Gibbon’s studio in Woodland to the colorful mixed media of Heather Hogan’s studio in South Land Park. Along with scores of others, these artists give a whole new meaning to showing their work. sacopenstudios.com

Old City Cemetery’s Lantern Tours

Oct. 11–19 Throughout the year, folks can take various themed tours of downtown’s Old City Cemetery—from surveys of “Pioneer Families” to the true-crime-tinged “Murder Most Foul.” But only the spooky season offers the cemetery’s wildly popular “Lantern Tours,” in which hundreds of volunteers and as many as 20 actors tell creepy, tailor-made tales around such themes as “Calamity,” “They Had It Coming” and “Gold ’n’ Consequences” over the course of two weekends in October. Organizers mine old newspapers for stories like those of Dr. Thomas Logan (who confirmed Sacramento’s first case of cholera in 1850) or Lewis Keseberg (who resorted to cannibalism as the last survivor rescued from the Donner Party camp). The nighttime expeditions around the 30-acre graveyard can be unsettling enough, but the real fear may be not getting tickets: Going on sale online at midnight on Sept. 1, all 24 of these tours typically sell out in a matter of hours. historicoldcitycemetery.org

Annie Leibovitz

Editors’ Note: This exhibit has been canceled

Oct. 6, 2024–Jan. 12, 2025 Annie Leibovitz has been known to say she “backed into portraiture” with her fashion photography in the late 1970s. But since then, her iconic work for magazines like Vogue, Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone has established Leibovitz as one of the most iconic celebrity portraitists of our time: From Jimmy Carter to the Obamas, and from Bruce Springsteen to Keith Richards to Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, her oeuvre spans half a century, across glossy covers and galleries alike. The Crocker Art Museum will showcase her work with the exhibition Who We Are: Portraits by Annie Leibovitz, which promises to bring an intimate selection of high-profile subjects like rock star Patti Smith and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, alongside less recognizable, but equally influential figures like artist James Turrell and Native American activist Winona LaDuke. If you ask us, this one’s well worth a close-up. crockerart.org

Mountain Mandarin Festival

Nov. 22–24 There’s nothing quite like a perfect mandarin orange—the rind that peels off cleanly, the wedges that break apart, the flesh that exudes a honey-like sweetness and a little tartness, with a burst of juice. Throngs of fruit-loving fortune hunters come each year to Auburn seeking this flavor jackpot, which abounds at Placer County’s annual paean to the harvest of these locally grown treasures. Capitalize on peak-season taste with freshly picked orbs from prize-winning growers like Newcastle Mandarin Ranch and Miller Honey Farms, or stop by the mandarin recipe contest for everything from mandarin-topped cupcakes to succulent mandarin-spiked barbeque. Either way, be advised that last year, the 30th annual festival set a single-day record of 12,000 attendees and even sold out of the featured fruit by the final day. So plan ahead this November and beat the rush—clearly, we’ve all got a big orange crush. mandarinfestival.com

Theatre of Lights

Nov. 27–Dec. 30 “Theatre” doesn’t quite do justice to this illuminated spectacle, which overtakes Old Sacramento’s waterfront Thursdays through Sundays during the holiday season, and draws awestruck, standing-room-only crowds to observe the choreographed light shows that dance across balconies during nightly retellings of The Night Before Christmas. (Visitors get a little history lesson as well, hearing tales of the resiliency that saved the district amid flooding and other calamities of the 1850s.) The dazzling display, which celebrated its 15th anniversary in 2023, includes a 60-foot Christmas tree with nearly 24,000 lights of its own (which go purple on Kings game nights) and a strong Disney vibe with narration by Emmy winner Bill Farmer—whom you may recognize as the voice of Goofy. Add industrial snow machines, confetti cannons, moving spotlights and more, and you’ve got enough high-powered holiday spirit to make Clark Griswold holly green with envy. oldsacramento.com

The Nutcracker

Dec. 13–22 “It’s as quintessentially Christmassy as mince pies, fir trees and carols,” the BBC once declared about the enduring, global appeal of Tchaikovsky’s ballet. Sacramento knows the feeling: From the hundreds of local children who take on the roles of Candy Canes and Mice each year, to the iconic score as performed by the Sacramento Philharmonic, it wouldn’t be December in the capital city without the Sacramento Ballet’s journey to the Land of Sweets. Since 2022, local choreographers Nicole Haskins, Colby Damon and Julia Feldman have added more acrobatic dancing and kid-friendly spins to The Nutcracker, growing our beloved holiday tradition and making this sugar plum of a production as quintessentially Sacramentan as our twin rivers, bountiful harvests, and the ever-shining ornament that is the Capitol dome. sacballet.org

More You Might Also Like

Sowing the Seeds of Change (One Theater at a Time) – The future and legacy of Celebration Arts

Q&A with Jeremy Ganter, the new executive director of the Mondavi Center

Setting the Stage – Behind the scenes at Sacramento Ballet’s annual Nutcracker auditions