Which Pasadena Fall Weekends Belong to the Rose Bowl, and Which Are Still Yours?

How many Saturdays does the Arroyo Seco have left this fall without a stadium crowd? Counting from Saturday, October 24, through Thanksgiving weekend, the answer is two.

Between October 24 and November 28 there are six Saturdays. The Rose Bowl has a UCLA home game or a major concert on four of them. It also hosts a Friday night game and a Thanksgiving morning race that runs on the loop itself. The stretch of Pasadena that serves as a running track, a dog walk, a swim lap and a Sunday market will spend most of the next six weeks working around the stadium.

Six Saturdays, Four Taken

UCLA's official schedule and the Rose Bowl's event listings give the rest of the season.

As of mid-October, kickoff times for the Nevada and USC games are still listed as TBA. One date needs a second look. UCLA's schedule shows the Illinois game on Friday, November 13, at 6 p.m. An August City of Pasadena District 6 newsletter lists it as November 14. Check the date again closer to that week before you plan a Saturday morning around it.

What an Event Day Takes From the Arroyo

An event at the stadium affects most of the day around it. For UCLA games, the Rose Bowl opens stadium parking six hours before kickoff. With the October 24 game set for noon or 12:30, the lots start filling around sunrise. Parking costs $35 plus a $3 fee if bought by 10 p.m. the night before, or $40 plus a $4 fee on the day, with no cash accepted. Vehicles must leave within 90 minutes after the game ends.

The loop closes for longer than the event itself. For the Guns N' Roses concert on September 5, the City's District 6 newsletter carried this notice from the Rose Bowl:

"The Recreational Loop will be closed from 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, September 5, until 1 a.m. on Sunday, September 6. The Equestrian Loop will remain open at all times."

That September notice applied to one show and is not a standing rule. It still shows the scale. An evening concert closed the recreational loop for about fifteen and a half hours. The same notice put the heaviest traffic at 5 to 7 p.m. and again from 10:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Moby + Underworld starts at 4 p.m. on November 7, so a similar pattern on that Saturday would be no surprise.

The institutions around the stadium adjust as well:

• Kidspace Children's Museum normally opens Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. On the October 17 game day it ran 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. "Due to a Rose Bowl Event."
• Rose Bowl Aquatics Center posted modified hours of 5:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. for October 17. In its October 13 newsletter, hours for October 24 and October 31 were still marked TBD.
• The equestrian loop stayed open throughout the September concert closure.

The stadium has not published street-by-street closure times for the remaining games or the concert. The most reliable sources on the day are the Rose Bowl's event-day resident hotline, 626-397-4141, and its resident email alerts on event timing and traffic. Households on the protected streets near the stadium can get Rose Bowl resident passes for roads closed to through traffic on major event days. Each valid address can receive up to 10 passes, and proof of residency is required. The current passes took effect July 1, 2025, and older passes are no longer valid. Passes are not handed out the day before or the day of an event, and they do not get a car through the Arroyo Seco parking toll plazas. Anyone who still needs passes before October 24 should request them early in the week.

The Weekend That Never Stops: November 7 and 8

Most event weekends cost the Arroyo one day. The first weekend of November costs two. Moby + Underworld plays Brookside at The Rose Bowl on Saturday at 4 p.m. The Rose Bowl Flea Market opens Sunday at 5 a.m., because November 8 is the second Sunday of the month. Entry stops at 3 p.m., and shopping runs until 4:30. In September, the City warned that concert load-out would start right after the show and continue through Sunday. If the November concert follows the same pattern, the stadium grounds will be busy from Saturday afternoon to Sunday evening.

Anime Pasadena runs at the Pasadena Convention Center the same weekend, November 6 through 8. Both of the city's big event venues are busy at once that weekend, not just the Arroyo.

A Friday Night Game, and a Better Reason to Be Downtown

The Illinois game moves the stadium crowd to a weeknight. If UCLA's 6 p.m. Friday kickoff holds, the traffic will arrive during the evening commute instead of on a Saturday morning.

The same day, the Norton Simon Museum opens Making History: Manet's "Execution of Maximilian" from the National Gallery, London. The show runs through March 1, 2027. The museum's other current show, The Art of Kandy: Sri Lanka's Last Kingdom, stays up through February 8, 2027. The Manet exhibition will run for months, so it can wait until a quieter weekend.

The Two Quiet Saturdays

November 14 and November 21 are the only remaining Saturdays with nothing listed at the stadium. UCLA plays at Michigan on the 21st. For anyone who uses the full recreational loop on Saturday mornings, these two dates are the open windows of the season. Watch November 14 in particular: if the Illinois game turns out to be on Saturday after all, that leaves November 21 as the only one.

The Rose Bowl's public stadium tours fall on weekdays around these dates. Sessions run at 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on October 29 and 30, November 12, and November 26 and 27. The November 26 tours fall on Thanksgiving, the same morning as the Rose Bowl Turkey Trot. The race starts at 8:30 a.m. on the stadium's 5K recreational loop. On that morning, people come to the loop to run it.

Where the Rest of Pasadena Picks Up on Event Days

The city's other fall calendar happens to fit around the stadium dates. Several events land on game days, away from the Arroyo:

1. Saturday, Oct. 24. The Pasadena Certified Farmers' Market at Victory Park, 2900 block of N. Sierra Madre Blvd., runs 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., the same window as the Michigan State game. That afternoon, The Paseo hosts its Día de los Muertos Festival and Altar Exhibit from 3 to 9 p.m.
2. Friday, Oct. 30. The City's Día de los Muertos event at Villa Parke Community Center, organized by Pasadena's Parks, Recreation, and Community Services Department, falls the day before the Nevada game.
3. Sunday, Nov. 1. The Pasadena City College Flea Market, held the first Sunday of each month at 1570 E. Colorado Blvd., comes a week before the Rose Bowl's own market.
4. Through Sunday, Nov. 8. Come From Away plays A Noise Within, 3352 E. Foothill Blvd., so its final weekend overlaps the concert and the Rose Bowl flea.
5. Nov. 4 through 29. Pasadena Playhouse presents Passing Strange at 39 S. El Molino Ave. Its run covers every remaining stadium date, including USC vs. UCLA on November 28.

For a coffee stop on the Colorado Boulevard side of town, try Milk Brew at 263 E. Colorado Blvd. It opened the weekend of August 1 and 2 and makes coffee steeped in milk overnight. Pasadena Now's August roundup also listed Mehfil Co. at 82 S. Lake Ave. and Dalah at 851 Cordova St. among the city's newer food and drink businesses. Both are far enough from the Arroyo to stay out of game-day traffic.

The Tuesday farmers' market at Villa Parke, 363 E. Villa St., runs 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. every week. No stadium date this season falls on a Tuesday.

Stadium dates affect more than weekend plans for homeowners near the Arroyo. They also affect when an open house, an appraisal visit or a buyer's second showing can happen, especially when the sale is a trust or estate property with a court or fiduciary deadline. Aluna Realty schedules around the Rose Bowl calendar from the start, so the sale timeline doesn't end up working against it. Let's Connect: Schedule a Confidential Consultation.