Raw States
Watts Towers Day of the Drum & Jazz Festival
Los Angeles, CA · Music
- When
- September 27–28, 2026
- Where
- Watts Towers Arts Center · Los Angeles · CA
- Cost
- Not confirmed
- Status
- Confirmed from the organizer's published schedule
A free two-day festival at the Watts Towers Arts Center, pairing a Saturday of drum and percussion ensembles with a Sunday jazz festival named for Simon Rodia, the towers' builder. Staged by the city's Department of Cultural Affairs since the early 1990s, it draws musicians and crowds to the base of the Watts Towers themselves.
The history within reach
A free two-day festival at the Watts Towers Arts Center, pairing a Saturday of drum and percussion ensembles with a Sunday jazz festival named for Simon Rodia, the towers' builder.
- Watts Towers begunsame spot
Simon Rodia, an Italian immigrant tile setter, spent 33 years building seventeen steel and mortar towers alone, without scaffolding or bolts.
- Watts Summer Festival0.1 mi
Ted Watkins Memorial Park hosts a weekend of music, spoken word and community programming each August, born in 1966 from the aftermath of the 1965 Watts uprising to commemorate the residents who died and to rebuild community pride.
Watts began as a ranching settlement in the late nineteenth century and grew fast once the railroads and the depot arrived, enough to run as an independent city of its own.
The Pacific Electric built this depot in 1904, one of the first buildings in Watts, and Red Cars ran through it between Los Angeles and Long Beach for decades.