On Thursday, November 19, the Rodeo Drive Holiday Lighting Celebration runs from 5 to 8 p.m. under the theme "50 Years of Brilliance." Beverly Press reports that this year's event will also commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Rodeo Drive Committee, the merchants' group behind nearly everything that happens on the three blocks between Wilshire Boulevard and Little Santa Monica.
The Committee's own history puts the 50th anniversary year in 2027, which makes the November evening the start of the anniversary. Ten monumental sculptures by Carole A. Feuerman were scheduled for unveiling on Rodeo Drive on November 9, ten days before the lighting, and they are planned to stay through most of 2027.
A Holiday Theme and an Anniversary Year
The Committee's history page says the group began to form in 1976 and was founded in 1977, with Fred Hayman as its driving force and first chairman. At the time, Hayman was also president of Giorgio, the boutique he had made into an institution. The founding circle included Donald Tronstein, a property owner and developer on the 400 block who served as Committee President from 1984 to 1987. Colleagues called him the "Mayor of Rodeo Drive."
This season's lighting carries the 50th as its commemorative theme. The Committee's history dates the anniversary itself from its 1977 founding and says so directly: "2027 marks the 50th anniversary of the Rodeo Drive Committee."
The founders set an openly ambitious goal. They wanted Rodeo Drive promoted as America's answer to Via Condotti in Rome, New Bond Street in London and the Faubourg St-Honoré in Paris, at a time when the street had about a decade of luxury retail behind it. By 1980, the city estimated that the Rodeo Drive shopping district produced as much as 25 percent of Beverly Hills sales tax revenue.
Many of the street's best-known public features came out of that same organization. In 2003 the Committee created the Rodeo Drive Walk of Style, the sidewalk plaques honoring fashion figures. Its symbol is Robert Graham's sculpture Torso at Rodeo Drive and Dayton Way. The Committee also produces the Concours d'Elegance, Fashion Night Out, the annual Rodeo Drive Celebrates program and the holiday lighting itself.
Thursday, November 19, in Order
Beverly Press reports that thousands of residents and visitors are expected at the free celebration. Here is how the evening is planned to run:
- 5 p.m. The program begins, hosted by vocalist, performer and entertainment reporter Ali Ward.
- Main performances. Dani Armstrong, six-time Grammy Award winner Daniel Ho, and DJ Lady Sha.
- New this year. Ortal Edri and 8-year-old vocalist Marianna Kriuchenkova perform as winners of the first "Rodeo Drive Has Talent" search, a program that invited emerging performers to submit their work.
- All along the street. Holiday characters, food trucks and wine gardens through the evening.
- The countdown. Mayor Craig Corman leads it with members of the Beverly Hills City Council and the Rodeo Drive Committee Executive Board.
- The finale. Rodeo Drive's holiday displays light up, followed by fireworks. The event ends at 8 p.m.
The City of Beverly Hills confirmed the date and hours in a news flash posted October 22. Speaking to Beverly Press, both the mayor and the Committee president tied the evening to the street's history more than to the season.
"Fifty years ago, Fred Hayman understood that Rodeo Drive could be much more than a shopping destination – it could be an experience that captures the imagination of the world."
Rodeo Drive Committee President Kathy Gohari gave that quote to Beverly Press. She added that the lighting celebration "reflects that vision." Corman told the same paper that the theme "celebrates the extraordinary history of Rodeo Drive and its place at the heart of Beverly Hills."
Ten Figures for the Length of the Anniversary
The lights come down in early January. The sculptures do not. Carole A. Feuerman's Monuments of Stillness was scheduled for an 11 a.m. unveiling on November 9 at 332 N. Rodeo Drive and is planned to remain on view during 2027. The artist's page describes it as her first major public outdoor exhibition on the West Coast. The City of Beverly Hills and Melissa Morgan Fine Art present the show, with special thanks to the Rodeo Drive Committee.
Melissa Morgan Fine Art gives the exhibition dates as November 9, 2026, through December 1, 2027. That covers nearly all of the anniversary year the Committee's history describes. The gallery lists all ten works:
- Quan
- Survival of Serena
- Bibi on the Ball
- Justice
- Monumental Thinker
- The Golden Mean
- Patience
- Contemplation
- Christina
- Brooke with Beachball
The Beverly Hills Courier reported that the exhibition is one of Mayor Corman's priorities, part of his goal of bringing art pop-ups to community spaces across the city during his term. Corman told the Courier the show offers "residents and visitors an extraordinary opportunity to experience internationally acclaimed contemporary art in one of our city's most iconic public spaces."
The new figures join a street that already has a long art record. Frank Lloyd Wright's Anderton Court Shops were completed on Rodeo Drive in 1952, years before the luxury era began. Graham's Torso has stood at Dayton Way as the Walk of Style emblem since the program began. Feuerman's ten pieces carry that tradition through a full year, so a weekday walk in March will look different from one a year earlier.
The Rest of the Season, Off Rodeo
The lighting starts a citywide holiday program that, according to Beverly Press, runs through January 3, 2027. Most of it is a short walk from Rodeo Drive, and several events are built around the parks and the dog park more than around shopping.
| Event | Where | When |
|---|---|---|
| Lights on the Lily Pond | Beverly Gardens Park | 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. |
| Glowing Gardens, with a large Christmas tree and oversized ornaments | Beverly Canon Gardens | Daily, 5 to 11 p.m. |
| Holiday Craft Fair | Beverly Hills Farmers' Market | Nov. 22, 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. |
| Holidays at Greystone | Greystone | Dec. 5, 6, 12 and 13, 9:15 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. |
| Menorah Lighting Celebration | Beverly Gardens Park | Dec. 7, 5:30 p.m. |
| Santa Paws Yappy Hour | Beverly Hills Community Dog Park | Dec. 13, 10 a.m. to noon |
Glowing Gardens stays open until 11 p.m. every night, the latest hours on the calendar, which leaves room for a stop after dinner on Cañon Drive. The Farmers' Market craft fair falls on the Sunday after the lighting. The city collects details for all of these at beverlyhills.org/holidaysbh.
Parking for an Evening in the Triangle
The Love Beverly Hills parking guide, last edited November 5, explains how the free periods work in city structures. Four garages give the first hour free:
- 440 N. Camden Drive
- 333 N. Crescent Drive
- 221 N. Crescent Drive
- 9361 Dayton Way
Other city structures give two free hours. That includes 241 N. Canon Drive for entries before 6 p.m. Two Rodeo Drive offers two hours of free self-parking from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. In every case the free period applies only to the first entry of the day. For a lighting that starts at 5 p.m. and runs past 6, the hour-free garages on Camden, Crescent and Dayton Way are the ones whose terms don't change at sundown.
Getting to Rodeo Drive will change again during the anniversary year. Metro's October 2026 update forecasts D Line service to Beverly Hills and Century City in spring 2027. The Beverly Hills stop is Beverly Dr Station, with its only entrance at the southwest corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Reeves Drive. Patch reported that a planned second portal on the north side of Wilshire would have let riders come up directly into the Golden Triangle. Metro's board approved discontinuing that project in January 2025. If the forecast holds, the first trains will reach Wilshire while Feuerman's figures are still on Rodeo Drive.
Josh Flagg has spent his career on the streets that the Rodeo Drive Committee's founders set out to build up, and he knows how much a street's history adds to the homes around it. If you own one of Beverly Hills' storied properties and want an advisor who understands its provenance, Work With Josh.
