Mark the calendar: the City of Irvine's sixth annual Mid-Autumn Festival lights up the Great Park on Friday, September 25, starting at 5 p.m. It's free, family-friendly, and one of the better reasons to spend an evening in the park before the weather turns.

What It Is

Mid-Autumn Festival — also known as the Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival — is celebrated across many East and Southeast Asian cultures as a way of giving thanks for the year's harvest, traditionally held under the year's brightest full moon. Irvine's version, now in its sixth year, is put on by the City in partnership with the South Coast Chinese Cultural Center and the Irvine Chinese School.

What to Expect

Expect an evening built around performance and hands-on culture rather than just a market: live performances, cultural displays, hands-on crafts, and food. It's an evening event, not an all-day one, so plan to arrive as the sun starts dropping for the best of it.

  • When: Friday, September 25, 2026, starting at 5 p.m.
  • Where: Great Park, 8000 Great Park Boulevard, Irvine, CA 92618
  • Cost: Free
  • Good for: Families, first-generation and multi-generational households celebrating the holiday, and anyone who wants an easy introduction to the tradition

If you'd rather do something smaller and more hands-on the same day, there's also a separate community event at Mathis Home (13300 Jamboree Road) from 3–7 p.m. with tea and mooncake tasting, crafts, and games — worth knowing about if the Great Park crowd isn't your speed, though it's not a City-run event.

Why It's Worth Knowing About If You Live Near the Great Park

This is exactly the kind of free, culturally specific programming that makes the Great Park villages feel different from a typical Orange County suburb — it's the same civic muscle behind Daisy Chain Fields and the rest of the park's packed events calendar, just on a smaller, more community-rooted scale. If you're weighing a move into one of the villages we broke down in our Great Park neighborhoods guide, evenings like this are a good, low-stakes way to get a feel for the community before you commit — go, walk around, see who shows up.

Parking is free for now under the current rules at the Great Park, though that's shifting as the city rolls out its new paid parking program — plan to arrive a little early either way, since events like this tend to fill the closer lots fast.

Thinking about calling the Great Park home? See what's available in Great Park villages →

Sources: City of Irvine event calendar (Mid-Autumn Festival); Destination Irvine