On a Sunday morning, Parking Lot A at Los Angeles Valley College becomes a market. Produce, baked goods, handcrafted items and live music fill the asphalt from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., every week of the year. On Friday nights the planetarium dims for public shows. On Saturdays the stadium and theaters take turns. Much of Valley Glen's shared calendar for late October and November sits at a single address, 5800 Fulton Avenue.
That calendar runs on the college's academic terms. LAVC's second eight-week session of fall classes starts Monday, Oct. 26, and the campus closes Nov. 11 for Veterans Day. The football season's last home game is on the calendar. The theater department's big production comes the week before Thanksgiving. If you live a few blocks away, you're living on that academic schedule even if you never took a class there. Here's what that means for the next five weeks.
The Sunday market is the one fixture that ignores the semester
Of everything on the campus calendar, the farmers market is the only item the college describes as year-round. It's run by Good Times Farmers Market, and LAVC lists it every Sunday in Parking Lot A, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The college's own listing names the mix: fresh produce, live music, food, beverages, baked goods and handcrafted items.
That steadiness matters because almost everything else on the property starts and stops with the academic year. The market doesn't break for winter recess or the holidays, and it doesn't wait for a new term. It's the neighborhood's fixed weekly appointment, and everything else on Fulton Avenue changes around it.
Friday nights belong to the planetarium and the Shoebox
The planetarium shows how the campus works as a public venue. On Friday, Oct. 16, it ran "Astronaut," an immersive show about the hazards astronauts face in space. A test astronaut named "Chad" goes through everything space can throw at him. The show ran 8 to 9:30 p.m. At the door, tickets were $6 for adults, $5 for seniors and for students with an LAVC ID, and $4 for children 8 to 12. Children under 8 were not admitted. That age rule is worth knowing before you promise a younger child a night under the dome.
The same room also hosts free talks. On Sunday, Sept. 13, Dr. Heather Knutson of Caltech spoke there on "The Search for Exoplanets," covering current efforts to find Earth-like planets that might host life. Admission was free and open to the public. The planetarium books its shows one at a time, so LAVC's events calendar is the place to check for the next one.
This weekend the Friday slot goes to the theater. The LAVC Theater & Dance Department presents its Short Play Festival in the VACC Shoebox Theatre on Friday, Oct. 23 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 24 at 3 p.m. Tickets are $5 online or at the door, and parking is free on the top level of the campus parking structure. The program is six short plays directed by Advanced Directing students, with performances and lighting design by current LAVC students. The festival is part of the coursework, and it's on the calendar now because the term puts it there.
The next five weeks, by date
Most of the fall calendar fits in one table. Two items are just off campus in Van Nuys: the tree planting at Beilenson Park and Día de los Muertos at the Civic Center.
| Date | What | Where | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fri., Oct. 23, 7:30 p.m. | Short Play Festival | VACC Shoebox Theatre | $5 |
| Sat., Oct. 24, 9 a.m. to noon | Clean Up & Tree Planting with Friends of the LA River | Anthony C. Beilenson Park, 6300 Balboa Blvd., Van Nuys | Volunteer event |
| Sat., Oct. 24, 3 p.m. | Short Play Festival | VACC Shoebox Theatre | $5 |
| Oct. 24 to Nov. 3 | LA County Vote Center | Student Union Cafeteria Dining Room | See LAVC election page |
| Sun., Oct. 25 and every Sunday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Good Times Farmers Market | Parking Lot A | See listing |
| Fri., Oct. 30, 4:30 to 9 p.m. | Día de los Muertos celebration | Van Nuys Civic Center, 14410 Sylvan St. | See listing |
| Sat., Oct. 31, 1 p.m. | Monarchs football vs. Antelope Valley College | Monarch Stadium | Free |
| Wed., Nov. 11 | Campus closed for Veterans Day | LAVC | |
| Nov. 19 to 21 at 7:30 p.m., Nov. 22 at 3 p.m. | Mean Girls, the Musical | VACC William R. Payden Mainstage Theatre | $20 online, $25 at the door |
Saturday, Oct. 24 is the busiest day on that list. The tree planting, the Vote Center's opening and the Shoebox matinee all fall on it. The tree planting is posted on the Greater Valley Glen Council calendar with Friends of the LA River, and organizers are looking for 1,000 volunteers. A morning at Beilenson Park still leaves time to get back to Fulton Avenue for the 3 p.m. curtain.
Halloween afternoon closes out the football season
Football season ended up on the calendar the same way. Homecoming was Saturday, Oct. 17: a tailgate in Parking Lot E, then the Monarchs against Victor Valley College at Monarch Stadium, with the 2026 Homecoming Court presented at halftime. Two weeks later, on Saturday, Oct. 31 at 1 p.m., the Monarchs host Antelope Valley College. The college calls it the last home game of the season, and admission is free.
The 1 p.m. kickoff on Halloween fits easily into the rest of the day. A household can watch the game in the afternoon and be home before trick-or-treating starts. On Friday, Oct. 30, the night before, the Día de los Muertos celebration at Van Nuys Civic Center runs 4:30 to 9 p.m. It's listed with community altars, art, live music, food and a Catrina contest, and a Trunk or Treat runs alongside it from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Construction around the Civic Center has been heavy this year. Our earlier post on the Van Nuys Boulevard light rail timeline covers what's torn up on that side of the Valley.
After Oct. 31, the stadium's public calendar is clear for the year. When home games resume is up to the athletic department.
For eleven days, the cafeteria is a polling place
The campus does civic work too. From Saturday, Oct. 24 through Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3, LAVC is an 11-day LA County Vote Center in the Cafeteria Dining Room on the first floor of the Student Union. It runs in partnership with the Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters. A mail-in ballot drop box sits in Parking Lot G.
The college has posted two different sets of daily hours for the early-voting days. The safest move is to check the LAVC General Election 2026 page before you go. That page lists Election Day hours as 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. The Vote Center opens the same day as the Short Play matinee and runs through two Sunday markets. For the next week and a half, the campus is getting heavier use from the neighborhood than usual.
The week before Thanksgiving, the mainstage takes over
The biggest ticketed event of the fall is the theater department's Mean Girls, the Musical in the VACC William R. Payden Mainstage Theatre. Evening shows are Thursday through Saturday, Nov. 19 to 21, at 7:30 p.m., and a 3 p.m. matinee closes the run on Sunday, Nov. 22. Tickets are $20 online and $25 at the door. Buying online saves $5 a ticket, and a family of four saves $20.
The music department used the same stage to open its season on Monday, Oct. 19. The LAVC and LA Pierce College Wind Ensembles played a free joint concert with music by Eric Whitacre, Pierre La Plante, Dakota Pederson, José Elizondo and others. The department's ensembles also include the College Choir, Chamber Singers and Orchestra. Their concert dates appear on the events calendar as the term goes on.
The Great Wall stays as it is while new panels are painted in Santa Monica
Valley Glen's best-known landmark doesn't change with the semester. "The Great Wall of Los Angeles" runs more than 2,700 feet along the Tujunga Wash flood control channel. Judy Baca created it between 1974 and 1984, and it's listed on the National Register of Historic Places, as the Los Angeles Times reported in February. The Times describes the channel as running "through the leafy Valley Glen neighborhood." The original mural ends with track star Wilma Rudolph and runner Billy Mills, two Olympic gold medalists.
A planned expansion will carry the story from the 1960s to the present. The same Times report says it's on schedule for completion in 2028. The new sections are being painted at a rented space at Bergamot Station Arts Center in Santa Monica and will be installed in the channel later. The broader plans also include interpretive stations, nighttime lighting and a pedestrian bridge over the wash. For now, the half-mile you can walk past on a Sunday is the same one that was there last year, while the newest work is being painted in Santa Monica. SPARC, the nonprofit behind the mural, describes its restoration and continuation as an ongoing program.
Until the new panels arrive, the mural stays as it is, the college calendar changes every few weeks, and the Sunday market keeps its 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. hours.
For many of our clients in Valley Glen, the place they call home is shaped by schedules they rarely think about: a term calendar, a stadium season, a market that doesn't take weeks off. At Brandolino Group, we follow those rhythms closely across the San Fernando Valley. If you'd like to talk about what they mean for your home and your plans, Contact Us.
