When to leave for a show at the Hollywood Bowl

Show night at the Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, California. Not sure which time on the ticket matters? The concert night plan covers doors, opener and headliner at any venue; this page is about this one.

Every row is editable. Tap the showtime or any duration and the plan recomputes backward. The first travel row is your leave-by time.

Travel time to the Hollywood Bowl

The 35-minute drive is a typical run from downtown LA without show traffic (the optimistic number). In the app, set the Hollywood Bowl as the destination and Apple Maps fills in the time from where you’re leaving.

🚗 35 min

🚗 Drive 🚶 Walk 🚴 Cycle

35 min Drive to the venue

Then add for show night: every car aiming at the same entrance (real drive to the Hollywood Bowl). Change the row and every step before it moves.

The Hollywood Bowl from the top benches, the seating running down to the white shell with the hills behind it. — Photo by Erwin Kreijne, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0. Resized for this page.

What the time on the ticket means

The time on the ticket is when the first act is due on, and at most shows here the gates opened two hours earlier. Every seat is reserved, so nobody is racing for a spot; the deadline really is the show. Aim to be in your seat ten minutes before the first act, and budget the walk to your row: it is the part people misjudge, not the drive.

Here is the evening drawn to scale. A maps app can number the drive. The rest is the walk in from the lot, the bag check, and the walk to your row.

Front door to your seat: 1hr 45min

Before you leave 15 min
Getting there 50 min
The lot and the walk in 5 min
Gate, stairs and seat 35 min

Show times, and what doors means here

The usual show times here

6:30 PM show doors 4:30 PM
7:00 PM show doors 5:00 PM
7:30 PM show doors 5:30 PM
8:00 PM show doors 6:00 PM

There is no fixed schedule at a concert venue; the promoter sets each show's time, and these are the ones this one runs most often. Pick the one on your ticket and every step before it moves. Anything else, tap the showtime and type it in.

Doors are two hours before showtime at most shows. About half the touring-act nights open at ninety minutes instead. The event page on The official Hollywood Bowl site lists doors and showtime; the ticket often lists only one.

Getting to the Hollywood Bowl

Highland Avenue is the one way in, and on busier nights Milner and Camrose close about two hours before the show. The Bowl runs its own transport. Park & Ride buses leave satellite lots across LA County at a time printed on the ticket, about two and a half hours before the show, and drop at the top of Lot B. Bowl Shuttles run from Ovation Hollywood and a few nearby lots every fifteen to twenty minutes from two and a half hours out until showtime. The Metro B Line to Hollywood/Highland connects to the free Ovation shuttle with a TAP card, or it is about a mile uphill on foot. Rideshare drops and picks up at Lot C, 6655 Odin Street.

The lots, and the walk in

Parking at the Bowl is stacked: attendants pack cars in nose to tail, you cannot leave until the rows in front of you do, and the lots sell out in advance. Lot A, on Highland by the main gate, is the short walk. Lot D is down at Odin Street and Highland, under half a mile below the gates. Lot B is now the Park & Ride and shuttle hub and Lot C the rideshare hub, so neither sells general parking any more. Do not park in the surrounding streets; the neighbourhood is permit-only on show nights and the tickets are expensive.

The lot is bought ahead, so it does not depend on when you arrive. What does is the queue into it, and the way out: stacked parking empties one row at a time, and most people are in the car for the better part of an hour after the last song. A shuttle lot or the Metro is the way round that.

The gate, the bag, and the stairs

Gates open two hours before the show and the Bowl suggests being on site ninety minutes before. Screening is a bag check at the ticket gates, and the limit is the size: nothing over 15 by 15 by 22 inches, which is a picnic basket rather than a purse. Sealed plastic bottles up to a litre and empty reusable ones are fine; no glass and no cans. No umbrellas, chairs or luggage. Then the climb: the bowl rises from the boxes to the top benches, with escalators part of the way, and the top sections are a real walk from any gate.

A picnic moves the whole evening earlier

The picnic is the evening here, and it happens before the gate. Add one and the plan puts in finding a spot, eating and packing up before the walk in, which means leaving the house that much earlier.

Fourteen picnic areas on the grounds, some open as early as four hours before the show, and picnicking at your seat or in your box is what the Bowl is for. Food and non-alcoholic drinks are allowed at every show; wine and beer only at LA Phil nights, never at the touring-act nights marked Special House Rules.

Doors, lots and bag rules change; the official site is the live source.

Common questions

How early should I get to the Hollywood Bowl?

The plan's floor is the gate thirty-five minutes before the show: screening, the walk to your section, and a few minutes in the seat. Every seat is reserved, so nothing is lost by not being there when the gates open two hours out. The Hollywood Bowl itself suggests ninety minutes on site; the rest of that is picnic time, which is its own pill above. The walk from the lot depends on which lot you got.

What time should I leave for an 8:00 PM show at the Hollywood Bowl?

About 6:30 PM from downtown LA with a 35-minute drive and a spot in Lot A by the main gate. Earlier for Lot D down on Odin Street or a picnic. Every row above is editable; the first travel row is your leave-by time.

How does parking work at the Hollywood Bowl?

Every lot is stacked and bought in advance; Lot A by the main gate sells out first. Lot B is the shuttle hub and Lot C the rideshare hub, with no general parking in either. The official Hollywood Bowl site has the current lots.

How long is the walk from the parking lot at the Hollywood Bowl?

Five minutes from Lot A, by the main gate. From Lot D at Odin Street it is under half a mile up to the gates, about fifteen minutes. The Metro walk from Hollywood/Highland is about a mile uphill, or the free shuttle from Ovation Hollywood. The plan's default for Lot D down on Odin Street is 15 minutes, and it is editable.

Can I take a bus or train to the Hollywood Bowl?

Yes. The Metro B Line to Hollywood/Highland, then the free Bowl Shuttle from Ovation Hollywood with a TAP card, or the walk up Highland. The Bowl also runs Park & Ride buses from satellite lots across LA County and Bowl Shuttles from lots near the venue; both start about two and a half hours before the show and return about twenty minutes after it ends.

What bag can I bring into the Hollywood Bowl?

Anything that fits under your seat or in your box, up to 15 by 15 by 22 inches, picnic baskets and coolers included. Sealed plastic bottles up to a litre, no glass, no cans. Wine and beer can come in at LA Phil nights; at touring-act nights alcohol is sold inside only.

Going to a game instead? The stadium pages. Flying in? The airport pages.

Share one leave time with everyone on the trip

Whoever is driving sees the same 6:30 PM leave-by that you do, not just the showtime on the ticket.

They tap once, and every step gets its own alert on their phone.

🎧 Show at the Hollywood Bowl

15 min Final pack & check 6:15 PM

35 min Drive to the venue 6:30 PM

15 min Queue into stacked parking 7:05 PM

Showtime 8:00 PM