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Fall Friday Nights brings free food, music and family activities to MacArthur Park
Central City Neighborhood Partners staff pose with the organization's mobile food pantry during Fall Friday Nights at MacArthur Park.
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Courtesy of Central City Neighborhood Partners
)
This story first appeared on The LA Local.
MacArthur Park will host two more Fall Friday Nights this month, with a Glow Party on Friday and a free outdoor movie night next week as the city continues its community programming at the park.
The free events are open to the public from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. and include free food, games, entertainment, activities and community resources.
Friday’s Glow Party will include a DJ, glow sticks, dancing and interactive games.
The Sept. 25 movie night will feature a screening of “The Super Mario Galaxy” on a large outdoor screen.
The two events are the final Fall Friday Nights scheduled at MacArthur Park this year. The series has been held at the park since 2024 and brings together city departments, neighborhood organizations and service providers.
Fall Friday Nights was created in 2015 as an extension of the city’s Summer Night Lights program.
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Families and residents gather at MacArthur Park during Fall Friday Nights on Sept. 4, 2026.
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Courtesy of Central City Neighborhood Partners
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Eduardo Rodriguez, executive director of Central City Neighborhood Partners, said Fall Friday Nights grew from a partnership between the city, Mayor Karen Bass, CCNP and other community groups to create “more consistent, positive, family-centered activity at MacArthur Park.”
CCNP began activating the park this summer through its “Meet Me at MacArthur Park” initiative, which Rodriguez said showed that families wanted more welcoming events and accessible resources.
“The strong community response demonstrated that families want welcoming events, accessible resources, and reasons to return to the park,” Rodriguez said.
About a thousand people attended each of the first two Fall Friday Nights this year, Rodriguez said, for an estimated 2,000 people combined.
The Friday events are also part of a longer-term plan for the park.
Rodriguez said CCNP, through its “Meet Me at MacArthur Park” initiative, plans to establish a recurring presence at the park two days a week. CCNP will provide FamilySource services, youth and family programs, workforce and education resources, financial empowerment, wellness services, food assistance and other community support.
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“Our goal is to turn individual events into long-term relationships with families and create consistent, visible, and positive activity at MacArthur Park,” he said.
For Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, the Friday events are part of a broader effort in MacArthur Park that includes clean teams, street medicine teams, overdose response and infrastructure improvements.
Hernandez said residents are beginning to notice changes at the park, but argued that they came after years of work.
“This has been years of investment, of time, of money that me and my team have put into MacArthur Park and into Westlake from the moment I got into office,” she said on social media.
Hernandez has also described that work as part of a broader approach to public safety that extends beyond law enforcement.
“The public safety ecosystem is not just law enforcement,” she said, pointing to street medicine teams and mobile overdose response teams working in the park.
The Los Angeles Police Department and federal agents have spent much of the summer carrying out a multi-phase operation targeting drug activity in and around MacArthur Park, while the city says it remains on track to install a perimeter fence this fall.
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Fall Friday Nights “targets communities that may need a little extra care once the school year starts,” according to Bass’ office.
Free clothing will also be distributed. CCNP will provide free transportation from its Westlake office, Tenth Street Elementary School and Virgil Middle School. Residents can call CCNP at (213) 482-8618 for transportation information.
Last year, Fall Friday Nights brought more than 3,000 people to MacArthur Park over four Friday nights, according to the city. The programming included arts and crafts, futsal, meals and other activities, while unhoused residents could also access medical care and other services.
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