Laguna Beach – August 12, 2026
People have been telling me for years that I needed to see Pageant of the Masters. Since Julie was going to be in town for a show the following night, she suggested we try to get Pageant of the Masters tickets too and make a mini vacation out of it. I was able to find discount tickets through Today Tix and you can see from the picture above, they were not bad seats.
We started our day with me picking up Julie from LAX and then we hit Porto’s and Knott’s Berry Farm before checking into the Costa Mesa Hilton. We freshened up and then headed to Laguna. We thought we were getting there really early but parking was already packed. We ended up driving back up to the “cheap parking” (it was $10) and taking a shuttle back to the center of the festival. Our main concern was that the shuttle wouldn’t be running after the show, but the driver assured us that it would be.
We scanned our tickets and headed in to the art show. There was plenty of time to look around because we were still so early, and then we made our way to our seats. Julie was trying to explain to me what I was going to be seeing, but I told her that even though I hadn’t seen it, I knew what it was.
When the lights went down, the curtain went up on an art auction scene. The “artists” came out and had a discussion about the auction and then they set the first scene. For those of you who don’t know, they recreate famous artwork using actors, sets, and costumes. For each of the pieces, they had the “artist” (actors portraying the artist) do a little vignette before unveiling the piece. And they were not all on stage – some of them were up in the trees! Apparently it was the best thing the woman sitting next to me had EVER seen. She was very excited.
So now that I’ve finally seen it, I can say I never need to see it again. Don’t get me wrong – it was cool. But the most interesting part was the part where they showed how everyone gets into place and gets the final pieces of their costumes, then they add set pieces and put a frame around the set, and finally they turn on the stage lights and the scene transforms. Except for the few pieces where someone waved or moved, it was really hard to tell what was an actor and what was just a set. There were people with binoculars, so maybe if we’d brought our opera glasses it would have been easier to pick out what was what. As far as the show went, it felt like I was being beaten over the head with an art history lesson. You know? Like when you go to be entertained only to discover that it’s educational? It’s the same feeling I had when a friend recommended a Michael Crichton book and I got a chapter or so in and realized I had just been tricked into reading Beowulf (Eaters of the Dead in case you too want to be tricked into reading Beowulf). Even Julie seemed a little disappointed and she was the one who wanted me to see it. She said it wasn’t like that the last time she saw it, so maybe we just didn’t have the best storyline this year.
After the show, it took some effort to get back on the road. There was a long line of people waiting for the shuttles. The shuttles were lined up, so as soon as traffic permitted, a new one pulled up for passengers to board. It was total gridlock with cars trying to get out of the closer parking lots though. Once we were on the shuttle, it was a fairly painless ride back to the parking lot, but then it’s a left turn out of the parking lot into gridlocked traffic. They would do well to put in a stop sign or maybe assign a traffic cop or 2 to help get traffic moving and out of there.
Still a fun evening though and I’m glad I went. If I go back, I’ll be going for one of the other art festivals that take place at the same time (according to their website there are 3 simultaneous art shows) and to hear live music. Some of the bands they had listed looked interesting.