Out & About in Spring 2026

Cardi B (Photo by Brian Ziff, courtesy of the Golden 1 Center)

CARDI B

Feb. 25 Eight years after releasing her debut album, “Cardi B remains one of the most vital rappers in the game,” wrote Billboard  following the September launch of her eagerly awaited sophomore turn, Am I the Drama?  Now the Grammy winner’s first-ever arena tour heads to the Golden 1 Center with favorites like “Bodak Yellow” and “WAP,” and new hits like “Up” and “Outside.” golden1center.com

THE CITY OF TREES PARADE

Feb. 28 A metric ton of recycled beads, some 1,500 marchers and an expanded roster of over a dozen lit-up art cars—including newcomers like the 20-foot-tall Giving Tree and the psychedelic Rainbow Sunrise—come together to celebrate Mardi Gras, Sacramento style. After the downtown parade, the party continues on Capitol Mall with music, libations, and new for this year, a hearty helping of creole and soul food. cityoftreesparade.org

BERRYFEST 

May 9-10 Farm-fresh strawberries headline this juicy-sweet Mother’s Day weekend tradition. Woodland’s Yolo County Fairgrounds will also host three dozen food and drink booths—serving everything from strawberry beer to strawberry pizza to build-your-own strawberry shortcake—as well as over 100 craft artisans, seven entertainment stages and a newly expanded, 400-strong classic car show. thestrawberryfest.com

AN IRISH GOODBYE

March 11–April 5 Who says you can’t go home again? Not Jack Gallagher. After nearly 40 years in Sacramento, the beloved comedian decamped to his native Massachusetts in 2024 to be closer to family. But if anything, absence has made the heart grow fonder, as evidenced by this new one-man B Street Theatre show, co-written with his son Declan, which brings Gallagher’s unique blend of humor and heart to midtown’s Sofia in a sweet, funny farewell letter to our city. bstreettheatre.org

Leslie Jones

March 13 & 14 Whether you know her as a queen of sketch comedy from her five-year tenure on Saturday Night Live, or as an actress in films like Ghostbusters, or simply as Leslie F*cking Jones (per the title of her 2023 New York Times  best-selling memoir), this uproarious force of nature is hard to miss. Keep up with Jones’ latest irreverent stand-up set at Punch Line in March. punchlinesac.com

Nine Inch Nails

March 16 Bow down before the ones who serve you iconic music. The final show of Nine Inch Nails’ lauded “Peel It Back” tour takes over the Golden 1 Center with a lineup that includes hits like “Hurt,” “Closer,” “The Hand That Feeds” and “Head Like a Hole.” golden1center.com

FAT HAM 

March 18–April 19 This modern reimagining of Hamlet  recasts the titular Shakespearean character as a gay, Black college student and transforms Capital Stage into a Southern backyard family cookout, vengeful ghost and all. Fat Ham  “is a raucous domestic comedy instead of a palace blood bath,” wrote The New York Times of James Ijames’ 2022 Pulitzer Prize winner. capstage.org

La Traviata

March 20 & 22 Giuseppe Verdi’s tragic tale of love lost between a nobleman and courtesan heads to the SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center with a 36-person chorus and production effects bringing the streets of 1850s Paris to life. The Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera will also offer a second operatic performance—a matinee—for the first time ever. sacphilopera.org

VISIONS 

March 20–22 A showcase for innovative choreography, the annual Sacramento Ballet program is delivering three inspiring works to The Sofia. This year, the dance company will perform New York-based choreographer Caili Quan’s 2023 piece Love Me Anyway  and New York City Ballet co-founder George Balanchine’s masterpiece Serenade, along with European choreographer Ihsan Rustem’s sleek, contemporary Mother Tongue, which is making its River City debut. sacballet.org

Cake (Photo by Ryan Magnani, courtesy of the band)

CAKE

March 21–23 This longtime Sacramento band—which started out performing in local bars like Old Ironsides before climbing to the top of the Billboard charts—has been racing and pacing and plotting the course for over 30 years. In advance of a new album that is set to come out this fall, Cake is going the distance for three nights of hometown shows at midtown’s Channel 24. Catch favorites like “Short Skirt/Long Jacket,” “Love You Madly” and “Never There.” channel24sac.com

CALUM SCOTT

March 27 It looks like this Britain’s Got Talent  breakout finalist won’t be dancing on his own for much longer. Working with Whitney Houston’s estate, Calum Scott released a posthumous duet of “I Want to Dance with Somebody” last September. He’s bringing that collab and more from his new album Avenoir, as well as hits like “You Are the Reason” (which also featured a duet version, with X Factor  star Leona Lewis) to downtown’s Ace of Spades. aceofspadessac.com

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (Photo by Andrew Eccles, courtesy of the dance company)

ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER 

April 14–15 Named for its founder—the father of Black modern dance—the world-renowned New York troupe comes to Davis’ Mondavi Center this spring under the guidance of its new artistic director Alicia Graf Mack, an Alvin Ailey alum and former Julliard dance head. Expect a program featuring inspiring new works, as well as masterpieces by Ailey like Revelations. mondaviarts.org

SACRAMENTO BOOK FESTIVAL

April 19 This year’s local book fête opens a new chapter, expanding to East Sacramento’s Scottish Rite Masonic Center from its previous home at McKinley Park with roughly a dozen talks and more than 200 regional authors. Watch for wordsmiths from around town, including New York Times  best-selling authors like romance writer Brenda Novak, thriller novelist James Rollins and science fiction master Kim Stanley Robinson. sacramentobookfestival.com

MAKING MOVES: A COLLECTION OF FEMINISMS

Through May 3 This Crocker Art Museum exhibition offers 78 pieces exploring the diversity of female viewpoints across art history. Look for groundbreaking artists like Mary Cassatt, Judy Chicago and—showing for the first time at the Crocker—Frida Kahlo, with two original works on display: 1950’s Xibalba-Alado-Xólotl  (a pastel and crayon portrait of one of her dogs) and 1947’s Self-Portrait with Loose Hair. crockerart.org

Back to the Future (Photo by Evan Zimmerman for Murphymade, courtesy of Broadway Sacramento)

BACK TO THE FUTURE

May 13–24 This 2020 Broadway musical based on the ’80s time-travel classic is “light, funny and stacked with film-reference Easter eggs,” wrote The Guardian. Speeding toward downtown’s SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center at 88 miles per hour, this stage adaptation—which boasts 17 new songs—was co-created by the film’s co-writer Bob Gale and composer Alan Silvestri. broadwaysacramento.com