Best of the City 2025:
Best Rockers for the Ages
Selling out venues across the country and launching their 10th studio album, this Sacramento-born rock group is keeping the music going, earning them a place among the dozens of people, places and things that have rocked this year. Here's one of our picks for Best of the City 2025.
Out and About in Fall 2025
Cyndi Lauper heads to Wheatland as she wraps up her farewell tour, the Sacramento Ballet and Capital Stage launch their new seasons, A Flock of Seagulls (plus nine more ’80s sensations) take flight at Thunder Valley, a pop-jukebox sequel to Romeo and Juliet delivers verses from bards like the Backstreet Boys and Kelly Clarkson at Broadway Sacramento, and more. Here are 15 reasons to fall for the arts around town.
Pit Mastermind
Renowned chef and pitmaster Matt Horn expands his culinary empire with a new meat mecca in Elk Grove. With Michelin-rated, melt-in-your-mouth brisket and ribs, the down-home Horn Barbecue delivers unfancy feasts that are worth ’cueing up for.
Fairs and Festivals to wrap up summer with a blast
The Nevada County Fair kicks off this week; the Japanese Food & Cultural Bazaar prepares a feast for your eyes and your appetite; midtown's chalk and music festival returns for its 35th year; and more. Here are the fairs and festivals rounding out the end of summer.
Best of the City 2025:
Best Inclusive Trail Angel
Co-author of Moon Travel Guide’s new Northern California Hiking guidebook, this attorney-turned-writer, and inclusive-hiking champion, is one of the dozens of local people, places and things that have made us balloon with hometown pride this year. Here is just one of our picks for Best of the City 2025.
Fairs and Festivals this July to Celebrate Summer
This year’s State Fair promises a nostalgia-fueled good time with everything from a full-size Back to the Future DeLorean to jumbo corn dogs; the Marysville Peach Festival celebrates 25 years of blushing sweetness; and more.
Q&A with Agustín Arteaga, new CEO and director of the Crocker Art Museum
On July 1, the Crocker Art Museum welcomed its first new director and CEO in a quarter century. Before taking the helm of the Crocker, Agustín Arteaga spent eight years as the director of the Dallas Museum of Art. He has also led major museums in Puerto Rico, Buenos Aires and Mexico City, where he was the director of the country’s national art museum; has overseen or curated major retrospectives of renowned creatives like Frida Kahlo, Roy Lichtenstein, Diego Rivera and Christian Dior; and has served on the board of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts since 2020. Weeks before starting his new position, he talked to us from Dallas about his vision for the Crocker’s future, the need for museums to reflect their communities, and the importance of raising our museum’s international profile.
The Picasso of Positivity
He is the most prolific public artist in Sacramento, with hundreds of works—from large-scale commissioned murals to decidedly uncommissioned guerrilla pieces—beautifying the urban landscape. Now, J.M. Knudsen is expanding his vision for a more creative city. As one of his influences, Pablo Picasso, said: “Action is the foundational key to all success.” But for all Knudsen’s ambitious goals, the core of his message for us all remains deceptively simple: “YOU ARE GREAT.”
Fun in the Sun at these June Fairs and Festivals
The El Dorado County Fair is off to the races, Sacramento Pride brings a dose of joy to Capitol Mall, the Sacramento French Film Festival offers up a slate of French exports, and more. Here are the fairs and festivals delivering tons of summer fun in June.
Your 2025 Guide to Outdoor Movie Screenings in the Sacramento Area
Break out the lawn chairs and the popcorn, bring a light jacket for when the Delta Breeze rolls in, and cozy up with your friends and family for some outdoor movie screenings this summer (and a few in the fall, too). Whether you’re in the mood for classics like The Goonies and Big, recent blockbusters like Wicked, or animated family fare like Moana 2, these grassy lawns, museum courtyards, and even swimming pools are the place to be.
Pretty Enough To Eat
Over the past year, Jeff Nebeker’s ceramic doughnuts have gone deliciously viral, with each new batch attracting lines around the block outside midtown’s Elliott Fouts Gallery. With National Doughnut Day fast approaching on June 6, we talk to the 68-year-old Sacramento artist and former baker about his “yum aesthetic.”
Q&A with NBA Great Bill Cartwright
As a five-time NBA champion, Bill Cartwright is unequivocally the winningest basketball star to ever emerge from Sacramento. Drafted by the New York Knicks in 1979 straight out of the University of San Francisco—where he landed on the cover of Sports Illustrated as a student in 1977 and currently serves as director of university initiatives—the 7-foot-1 former big man is best known as the starting center who competed alongside Michael Jordan on the Chicago Bulls team that three-peated in the early ’90s. (Later that decade, he earned two more rings as an assistant coach for the franchise.) Now 67, the Elk Grove High alum and Gold River resident—who recently published his autobiography, Living Life at the Center—talks about growing up on a farm, his thoughts on today’s NBA, and why Sacramento “is the place to be.”
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