Every year, locals highly anticipate getting to once again attend their favorite annual events and festivals in Orange County. Some of the events have built such a reputation that even tourists come in from out of town and out of state just to attend!

From world-class surfing competitions and cultural festivals to local parades and cook-offs, be sure to mark your calendars so you don’t miss the top events and festivals happening in Orange County 2025.

1. UVSA Tết Festival

• Date: January 31 – February 2, 2025
• Location: Garden Grove Park, Garden Grove

Orange County’s Tết Festival in Garden Grove is one of the largest Tet celebrations outside of Vietnam itself! Celebrate the Lunar New Year with traditional music, dance, authentic cuisine, and cultural exhibits.

2. Surf City USA Marathon

• Date: February 1 – 2, 2025
• Location: Huntington Beach

The Surf City USA Marathon is an award-winning, Boston-qualifying marathon is considered one of the best courses in the country, and runners come from all over to run and enjoy the flat route and seaside view.

3. Laguna Beach Music Festival

• Date: February 12 – 16, 2025
• Location: Laguna Playhouse, Laguna Beach

The Laguna Beach Music Festival is an annual celebration of classical and contemporary music and is a great opportunity to witness renowned musicians to perform a series of concerts at the Laguna Playhouse in Laguna Beach.

4. Festival of Whales

• Date: March 7 – 9, 2025
• Location: Dana Point Harbor

Did you know Dana Point is known as the Whale Watching Capital of the World?! The Dana Point Festival of Whales is an annual celebration of the migration of the California Gray Whale with great art, music, and more. This year, the weekend-long party also includes a carnival each day at Lantern Bay Park!

5. OC Restaurant Week

• Date: March 2 – 8, 2025
• Location: Various Locations Around Orange County

A foodie favorite! OC Restaurant Week is an awesome opportunity to endulge and try out some of OC’s top restaurants, each of which feature a prix-fixe menu to showcase delicious multi-course meals crafted by their chefs. Their website usually shares most restaurants’ menus in advance, so you can pick and choose those you’re most excited to try!

6. Return of the Swallows Festival

• Date: March 19, 2025
• Location: Mission San Juan Capistrano

Each year on St. Jospeh’s Day, Mission San Juan Capistrano celebrates the return migratation of the swallows that call the mission home at the Return of the Swallows Festival. The historic mission comes alive during this festival with cultural performances and a host of fun family friendly activities (not to mention bird sightings!)

7. Swallows Day Parade

• Date: March 22, 2025
• Location: Downtown San Juan Capistrano

Also celebrating the return of the swallows to the Mission each year is the Swallows Day Parade! This historic parade feels like stepping back in time thanks to its Old West theme, featuring horseback rides, marching bands, and authentic folkloric performances. It’s also a great opportunity to explore Downtown San Juan Capistrano, which is always bustling during this time!

8. OC Japan Fair

• Date: April 4 – 6, 2025 (and TBD dates in October)
• Location: OC Fair & Events Center

The OC Japan Fair is the largest Japanese cultural festival in SoCal, and it happens twice each year! There is always a selection of amazing food options, not to mention a ton of great cultural performances and activities (like practicing calligraphy, traditional family games, and more). Anime lovers especially enjoy this event thanks to opportunity to cosplay and shop anime goods vendors.

9. Fullerton Food and Wine Festival

• Date: May 17, 2025
• Location: Fullerton YMCA

The Fullerton Food and Wine Festival run gives attendees each year a chance to experience a wonderfully curated selection of fine wine and gourmet dishes from local restaurants. While the wine and food is fantastic, what’s even better is that proceeds from this event go to the Fullerton Rotary Foundation, which supports dozens of local nonprofits and other community needs.

10. Tustin Street Fair and Chili Cook-Off

• Date: June 1, 2025
• Location: Old Town Tustin

The Tustin Street Fair and Chili Cook-Off is renowned as the largest one-day chili cook-off in the nation! This annual event in Old Town Tustin features amazing chili tastings, craft beer and wine, live music, craft booths, and lots of family-friendly activities (e.g. games, bounce houses, and other entertainment). Like the Fullerton Food and Wine festival, all proceeds go back to local nonprofits and service groups.

11. ShakesBEER Festival

• Date: TBD dates in June
• Location: Sea Terrace Park, Dana Point

Experience a unique blend of craft beer and Shakespearean theater at the ShakesBEER Festival! Attendees can sample a variety of great local brews while enjoying live music and a live performance of a Shakespearean play! The best part? Entry is FREE! As of writing this, the dates and shows have not yet been announced, but last year they showed the Tempest.

12. Little Saigon Night Market

• Date: TBD (Usually Mid-June – Labor Day)
• Location: Asian Garden Mall, Westminster

The Little Saigon Night Market (or the Asian Garden Night Market) is a highly anticipated each year for bringing the culture of open-air night markets from Asia to OC! It’s a great opportunity to sample and experience delicious Vietnamese food and drinks in Little Saigon while also enjoying live music and entertainment.

13. Sawdust Art Festival

• Date: June 27 – August 31, 2025 (and TBD Winter Dates)
• Location: Sawdust Art Festival, Laguna Beach

The next 3 events on this list are all take place around the same time during the summer and are literally within walking distance to one another, so we recommend making a day to enjoy all three! The Sawdust Art Festival, just across the street from the Festival of Art and Pagaent of the Masters, opens its doors each summer to showcase handcrafted works from over 180 local artists in an immersive, woodsy outdoor setting. Not to mention live music, art demos and classes, and lots of local food and drink options!

Meanwhile, during the holiday season, the venue opens again as the Sawdust Winter Fantasy, which offers a lot of the same fun but with a festive twist. It’s also worth the visit!

14. Laguna Art-A-Fair

• Date: June 27 – August 31, 2025
• Location: 777 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach

Just a short walk from the Sawdust Art Festival and Pageant of the Masters, Art-A-Fair is a juried art festival showcasing over 100 artists from around the world. Featuring a variety of media, from painting and sculpture to photography and jewelry, visitors can browse and purchase one-of-a-kind pieces while enjoying live entertainment and artist demonstrations.

15. Pagaent of the Masters

• Date: July 5 – August 29, 2025
• Location: Festival of Arts grounds, Laguna Beach

Lastly in this Laguna Beach summer art-scene series is the Pagaent of the Masters (which, if you decided to try and do all three events in a day, would be the last event of the evening as well since it occurs at sundown in a star-lit amphitheatre). This event, made even more famous thanks to Arrested Development, allows the audience to witness art come to life with a unique theatrical performance where famous artworks are recreated using live models, all of which are volunteers! With a professional orchestra, intricate sets, and an original score, it’s an incredibly unique show worth experiencing at least once!

16. OC Fair

• Date: July 18 – August 17, 2025
• Location: OC Fair & Events Center, Costa Mesa

Easily one of the biggest events if not THE biggest event of the summer, the OC Fair has not just the typical country fair fun of carnival rides and agricultural exhibits but some awesome food creations worth trying (like bacon churro fries?? Yes please!) and even live concerts to enjoy. There are often even special, limited-time events that occur during certain periods of the fair, so it’s worth keeping an eye on their calendar, so you don’t miss out!

17. U.S. Open of Surfing

• Date: July 26 – August 3, 2025
• Location: Huntington Beach

Catch the world’s (yes, the world’s!) best surfers in action at the U.S. Open of Surfing! This annual free event is one of the largest surfing competitions globally and attracts competitors from all over. The event also features awesome BMX and skateboarding exhibitions, vendor booths, and live music, making it a particularly exciting beach day.

18. Orange International Street Fair

• Date: August 29 – August 31, 2025
• Location: Old Towne Orange

The Orange International Street Fair is hosted every year over Labor Day weekend and let’s you travel the world without leaving OC! The Orange Circle its cross streets (Chapman Avenue and Glassell Street) become sectioned into countries or regions around the globe with booths serving up delicious international fare with proceeds benefitting the local community groups and nonprofit organizations running them. The Circle itself also usually has lots of great craft booth vendors and a stage for live music and performances.

19. Rocktoberfest

• Date: TBD (Usually end of August/Beginning of September, 3 weekends leading up to Oktoberfest)
• Location: Old World Huntington Beach

Old World Huntington Beach is already famous for its annual Oktoberfest festivities (see below), but Rocktoberfest at the Biergarten at Old World has developed its own awesome reputation as a lead up event. It has many of the same great beer, german-inspired food, and even weiner dog races you’d expect from Oktoberfest but with all the rocking vibes from legendary rock band tributes performing live.

20. Old World Oktoberfest

• Date: TBD (Usually mid September – Beginning of November)
• Location: Old World Huntington Beach

Once Rocktoberfest is over, the more traditional Oktoberfest begins! This annual harvest festival has the much of the same German cultural fun as the lead-up event but with more. Instead of rock bands, they have Oompah bands. And in addition to wiener dog races, they have a host of other fun contests and competitions for you and your friends to enjoy!

20. Maritime Festival

• Date: September 2025 (TBD)
• Location: The Ocean Institute, Dana Point

Orange County may not have its own Renaissance Faire, but the Maritime Festival in Dana Point offers a close experience! This festival lets you step aboard majestic tall ships and enjoy cannon battles, interactive pirate experiences, and not to mention stunning sea views while raising money for the Ocean Institute. To really set sail on the mystic experience, you can also attend the Pirate and Mermaid Ball, which the festival has hosted the last 3 years.

21. Orange County Children’s Book Festival

• Date: September 2025 (TBD)
• Location: Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa

The OC Children’s Book Festival brings together beloved authors, illustrators and book lovers of all ages for readings, illustrator demonstrations, interactive workshops, signings, and fun activities for children of all ages (including children at heart).

22. Ohana Festival

• Date: September 2025 (TBD)
• Location: Doheny State Beach, Dana Point

Ohana Festival is a beachside music festival curated by Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder that offers an incredible lineup of top artists like Sting, Alanis Morrisette, and (of course) Pearl Jam among others. But beyond the music (and some great food vendor options), they also emphasize other meaningful voices through a Storytellers series that highlight some of Ohana’s key pillars: oceans, activism, environmental justice, community, and indigenous voices.

23. Pacific Airshow

• Date: October 3 – 5, 2025
• Location: Huntington Beach

Huntington Beach has a lot of major events that bring people flocking to its sands, but the Pacific Airshow might be its biggest spectacle. Millions come to Orange County each fall to attend what’s become the largest airshow in the United States by attendance to see some truly stunning aerial feats while also enjoying other beachside entertainment, bars and more.

24. Beach, Brew, and BBQ

• Date: October (TBD)
• Location: Huntington Beach

Every October, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation throws its annual Beach Brews and BBQ in Huntington Beach, offering attendees a chance to go ham (pun intended) on some delicious BBQ and craft beer. It’s a great opportunity to hang out with friends at the beach while also raising money for CF research!

25. Sip & Shuck Champagne and Oyster Event

• Date: November TBD
• Location: The Deck on Laguna, Laguna Beach

The Deck on Laguna and the Bungalows next door at the Pacific Edge Hotel are already a hidden OC gem. But their annual Sip & Shuck Champagne and Oyster Event fundraiser is a 21+ experience that lets you enjoy a VIP-experience enjoying hand-shucked oysters, champagne, sparkling wines, spirits and more from around the world while raising money for local nonprofit Casa OC.

26. Christmas Train

• Date: November 28 – December 23, 2025
• Location: Irvine Regional Park, Orange

One of the most popular and coveted events by OC parents every year is the Irvine Park Railroad Christmas Train, which takes parents and their children on a ride through the lit up and festively decorated park and up through to the North Pole to meet and take professionally shot pictures with Santa. While Santa’s village is free for families to explore, tickets on the train are limited and sell out FAST, almost always within a few hours of the reservations opening. So we recommend jumping into the virtual queue as early as possible that day as possible!

27. Newport Christmas Boat Parade

• Date: TBD dates in December
• Location: Newport Landing, Newport Beach

Each holiday season, Newport Harbor is let up from the Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade! Homes along the harbor are already beautifully aglow, but many locals elaborately decorate and light up their yachts, sailboats, and kayaks, which they cruise through the harbor. The lights seem to twinkle a thousand-fold as they reflect upon the water, which is really beautiful. For a more unique experience, there are opportunities to even reserve a spot to ride along one of the boats, and if you attend opening night, there is a special holiday market you can peruse and enjoy as well!

Did we miss on OC’s top events this year? Comment below or submit an event here!