LA Opera Stages Free 'Celebración de las Artes' Festival on Dec. 13

LA Opera will hold its free community festival, Celebración de las Artes, on Sunday, Dec. 13, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. on The Music Center's Jerry Moss Plaza in downtown Los Angeles. The annual event celebrates Latino artistry and culture and costs nothing to attend.

LA Opera Connects presents the festival in collaboration with Hispanics for LA Opera. The program includes live music and dance, activities for children, and food and drinks available for purchase.

The plaza setting matters here. Rather than a ticketed performance inside the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the company moves its celebration outdoors, onto public space at the heart of the Los Angeles music district, for two hours on a December afternoon.

What can visitors expect at the mercado?

This year's holiday mercado will be double the size of last year's event, according to LA Opera. It will showcase local artists and vendors, including:

• Throw and Trim Ceramics
• Erick Martinez
• LA Garden
• Mi Vida Boutique

The company named these participants among others, indicating a broader roster of local sellers than in previous editions.

Who is performing?

The lineup includes Boleros with Attitude, a Los Angeles-based group that fuses hip-hop and boleros to celebrate the diversity of Latino music. Maqueos Music Academy will also perform, as will LA Opera's own Zarzuela Project.

The mix is notable. A group blending contemporary hip-hop with the romantic Cuban-Mexican bolero tradition, a community music academy and the company's zarzuela initiative share one bill. Each represents a different strand of Latino musical practice in Los Angeles.

What does this change for LA Opera's audience?

It keeps a free door open. At a moment when arts organizations across the country face pressure to demonstrate community reach beyond their subscriber bases, Celebración de las Artes places the company's name on a plaza where anyone can walk in, with no ticket required, and encounter performers tied directly to the city's Latino communities.

Christopher Koelsch, LA Opera's President and CEO, framed the festival in a statement as part of the company's civic identity. "Celebración de las Artes is one of the ways LA Opera celebrates the extraordinary cultural richness of Los Angeles," Koelsch said. "It's an opportunity to bring people together through music, dance and shared traditions, and to recognize the Latino artists and communities whose contributions are so essential to the cultural life of our city. We're delighted to welcome everyone to join us for this festive occasion."

Why the timing matters

The festival lands in the December holiday season, when the mercado format and family programming carry particular weight. With the vendor market doubled in size and a lineup spanning boleros, hip-hop and zarzuela, the Dec. 13 event tests how far the company's community-facing programming can stretch beyond the opera house — and whether a free two-hour plaza gathering can serve as genuine outreach rather than seasonal gesture.