Looking for the coolest things to do on the Monterey Peninsula this month? We’ve done the deep research for you on the best things to do on the Monterey Peninsula including museums, cultural events, food tours, golfing, hikes and more. Speaking of food, we also have an extensive list of our best restaurants on the Monterey Peninsula, and if you’re planning a weekend, the the best places to stay.
The short version of this event preview for the Monterey Peninsula area can unfold in five words: There’s a lot going on.
The longer take: The robust lineup of A-list events—many multiple days or weeks—include the country’s longest-running festival of new orchestral music, one of the planet’s most competitive rodeos, the U.S.’s most storied classical music gathering, and a world-class superbike race.
The most important takeaway: While Monterey enjoys a luxurious amount of perennial reasons to visit — natural wonders, unparalleled golf and epicurean adventures among them — this might be the most loaded lineup of special events for a single month in recent memory.
So planning and booking ahead represent smart strategies.
Featured Photo: Salinas Rodeo
July 4
The city of Monterey’s parade through the heart of its historic downtown draws around 15,000 for its procession of regional dignitaries, patriotic pop, flag bearers, dancers, costumed performers, and bands. Just around the corner, Monterey State Historic Park celebrates with a special Living History Day in the Memory Garden behind the Pacific House Museum at Custom House Plaza with demos on blacksmithing, rope making and leather stamping, plus 19th-century games and historic music. Over the hill, Carmel’s throwback celebration fills storybook Devendorf Park with a live performance by 28-member Monterey County Pops! Orchestra. In Pacific Grove, Jewell Park fills with patriotic decorations, live music, food, an obstacle course, face painting, choir performances, military vehicles and a live reading of the Declaration of Independence, as befits a city called “America’s Last Hometown.”
Dates TBD
WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and its 11-turn, 2.238-mile spectacle of a road course has forever been a favorite of racers and fans worldwide, and few races maximize its inherent drama like 190mph Superbikes. The weekend includes five classes of road racing: Steel Commander Superbike, Mission King of the Baggers, Supersport, Stock 1000, and the Mission Super Hooligan National Championship.
Dates TBD
The celebration of culture channeling dance, art exhibitions, food, music and neighborly friendship fills a Sunday afternoon, and it’s free to attend. Visitors can anticipate bonsai masterpieces, martial arts demonstrations, ikebana beauty, tea ceremonies, Taiko drumming, Obon Odori folk dancing and all sorts of contemporary and traditional Japanese cuisine.
Dates TBD
The American alternative rock legends—vocalist and guitarist Glen Phillips, guitarist Todd Nichols, bassist Dean Dinning and drummer Randy Guss—have registered major hits with singles which included “Walk on the Ocean,” “All I Want,” “Something’s Always Wrong,” “Fall Down” and “Good Intentions.” As they celebrate the 30th anniversary of their platinum-selling album, Dulcinea, they have released a remastered greatest hits album titled All You Want, which includes their latest single, “Best of Me (2023)” featuring Michael McDonald. It shows their ability to weave poignant lyrics with lush, harmonious arrangements remains very much intact.
Dates TBD
The Homeless Garden Project generates a number of incredible outcomes as it trains and houses the houseless — namely organic CSA boxes, value-added artisan salves and syrups, and helpful hand up for local citizens down on their luck. But it only hosts one Sustain Supper this summer, and it’s a doozie. Chef Reylon Agustin, culinary director at Big Sur’s singular Post Ranch Inn, conjures magic with locally-sourced ingredients—many grown on site—UCSC Environmental Studies professor and Union of Concerned Scientists chair Anne Kapuscinski keynotes, and farm tours, local wines, live music and a special kombucha brewed from farm-grown inputs flow.
Dates TBD
It’s Bach. The 87th season of the annual classical music explosion carries the theme of “Celebrating the Passion of Bach and Beyond,” and brings its habit of overloading listeners from all over the world with well-curated performances. Headlining events—among dozens all told in suitably epic venues like Sunset Center, Carmel Mission Basilica and Church in the Forest—include “Beethoven 9: Be Embraced,” “West Side Story and Magic Flute” and Plucked and Bowed: Trios for Harp and String.” There are also free community concerts like the July 25 show with Tower Brass performing fanfares, “Music for King Charles,” and Respighi’s “Ancient Airs and Dances,” plus a string quartet led by Cynthia Roberts performing music of Haydn and Fanny Mendelssohn.
Dates TBD
The names of the featured activities speak to the tenacity involved: steer wrestling, tie-downing, chuck wagoning, mutton busting, clown acting, trick riding, breakaway roping, barrel racing, bull riding, barebacking, saddle broncing, team roping. Fun fact: Hundreds of pro rodeos populate the contiguous country. Only one ranks among the top 10 and as the largest in California. Big shiny buckles and bigger prize money are on the line as part of an event wherein it’s hard not to rustle up a lot of fun.
Dates TBD
The CFCM feels like one of those undiscovered portals to amazeballs music reserved—fairly enough—for those in the know. This year’s two-week slate, under the motif “Music as Movement,” marks the 62nd season for America’s longest-running festival of new orchestral music. The festival will feature 15 composers in residence, alongside four world premieres and nine West Coast premieres and, according to Grammy Award-winning Music Director and Conductor Cristian Măcelaru, a wealth of thought-provoking performances. “We’ll present music that pushes the boundaries of orchestral sound, music that connects distant times and places, and music that powerfully represents physical, cultural, and social movements,” he says. “The ever-changing stories that bind us all.”
Event Venues
Looking to see what’s happening right now on the Monterey Peninsula? Our comprehensive list of venues across the city below will help you find what you need to know what’s going on.
Looking for more things to do in the area?
Visit our What to Do in Northern California page!
