5 You’ve cavorted at Pageant of the Masters and museum-hopped across the Los Angeles basin.
What now? Here are five more cool festivals that celebrate art, architecture, film and literature.
Santa Barbara International Film Festival
Its proximity to Hollywood has always made this city a favorite hangout for starlets and celebrities. So it’s little wonder that Oscar front-runners flock to its film festival, above, with 200-plus film screenings that typically include 45 world premieres. It’s catnip to the festival’s 92,000 fans, too. The 11-day festival typically runs from late January into February, and tickets go on sale in July. Details: http:// sbiff.org
Litquake
The largest independent literary festival on the West Coast, San Francisco’s nine-day Litquake celebrates literature of every variety with a lineup that typically includes nearly 200 readings, interactive workshops and quirky literary events in expected and unexpected venues — bookshops, museums and cafes, but also bars, barbershops and erotica boutiques. Litquake will be Oct. 11 to 20 this year. Details: www.litquake.org
Palm Springs Modernism Week
This celebration of midcentury architecture, design and culture consumes the city each February with more than 350 events, ranging from midcentury moderninspired parties to architecture tours, design panels, a Modernism Week Show House and the festival’s signature double-decker bus tour — all the better to peek over the hedges of architecturally significant homes. The 2019 festival will be Feb. 14-24. Tickets for the fall preview, a mini-Modernism Week held Oct. 18-21, go on sale Aug. 1. www. modernismweek.com
Napa Valley Film Festival
This five-day film, food and wine festival, which typically includes 180 film screenings, plus culinary demonstrations, wine tastings and plenty of movie-star sightings, has been ranked one of the nation’s top 10 film festivals by USA Today. This year’s event will be Nov. 7-11 at venues in St. Helena, Napa and Yountville. www.nvff.org.
I Madonnari
This Italian street painting festival turns the Santa Barbara Mission’s plaza into a riot of color each Memorial Day weekend. Madonnari or street painters use pastels to turn the plaza surface into 150 works of art, as live music and enticing aromas waft from the nearby Italian street market. www. imadonnarifestival.com