Thousands of Angelenos picnic on a cemetery lawn every summer Saturday, watching movies projected onto a mausoleum wall while Douglas Fairbanks rests a few metres away. The Fairbanks Lawn at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard, is the grand greensward fronting the reflecting-pool monument of Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and Jr., and it has become one of Los Angeles's most beloved and unlikely outdoor venues. Hollywood Forever, founded in 1899, is the resting place of an astonishing roll of screen history - Judy Garland, Rudolph Valentino, Cecil B. DeMille, Johnny Ramone, Mickey Rooney, Burt Reynolds - and sits directly against the back wall of Paramount Studios, on ground where Hollywood's founding generation both worked and was buried. The venue tradition began in 2002 when Cinespia started screening classic films on the lawn: gates open in the late afternoon, crowds carry in picnics, blankets and low chairs, DJs play until dark, and the film rolls on the Cathedral Mausoleum wall. The series sells out weekend after weekend through summer, with photo booths and themed nights building a ritual that regularly draws several thousand per screening. Music took to the lawn as well: the cemetery has hosted concerts from Bon Iver, The Flaming Lips, Father John Misty and Sigur Ros among many others, along with the annual Dia de los Muertos festival - one of the largest outside Mexico - which fills the grounds with altars, processions and performances each autumn. Indoors, the Masonic Lodge hosts intimate seated shows year-round. Practicalities: events are ticketed in advance and sell fast, alcohol policies vary by event, parking on the grounds is limited so early arrival or rideshare is standard, and the cemetery remains a working burial ground - daytime visitors can pay respects and join guided history tours. Few venues anywhere make the case for Los Angeles's strange magic as completely as a film under the palms among the founders of the movies.

Type: Outdoors

Address: 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, United States, 90038

Website: https://hollywoodforever.com

Cover Charge: 1

Serves Food

Outdoor Area