Adams Avenue Street Fair

The Adams Avenue Street Fair is Southern California's largest free two-day music festival, held annually in September in the Normal Heights neighborhood of San Diego along 10 city blocks of Adams Avenue from 32nd to 35th Streets. The 2026 edition is scheduled for Saturday September 19 and Sunday September 20 and will feature 75 musical acts across seven stages. The festival draws over 50,000 attendees over the weekend and is organized by the Adams Avenue Business Association, a nonprofit whose mission centers on promoting the Adams Avenue business corridor. The musical identity of the festival is genuinely eclectic. Past headliners and featured acts have spanned rockabilly, garage rock, blues, salsa, indie punk, electronic, and country, reflecting the neighborhood's character as one of San Diego's most musically diverse communities. In addition to live music, the event features carnival rides, Fern Street Circus performances, three beer gardens with craft brewery selections, food vendors, and 300 exhibitor booths. The combination makes it as much a community festival as a music event. Admission is free to the public, which is an extraordinary commitment for a festival at this scale. The Adams Avenue Unplugged event, a companion indoor performance series hosted in neighborhood venues and coffeeshops, runs separately in spring and represents a parallel opportunity for performers to engage the same community.