Pageant of the Masters Tickets Information
Presented by the Laguna Beach Festival of the Arts, the Pageant of the Masters has been taking place every summer since 1932, and from the looks on the faces of the quarter-million or so people flocking there each year, it gives no sign of breaking that tradition anytime soon.

The concept was the brainchild of one Lolita Prine, a visual artist and vaudevillian who wished to experiment with what she called “living works of art”. She convinced the local residents of Laguna Beach to don costumes and be positioned by her behind a giant frame, replicating various works of art which she envisioned.

Laguna Beach has been a favored home of artists of all genres, forms, and media as far back as 1878 when its unparalleled beauty inspired the first painting to be painted there. Garnering by 1900 a reputation as an art colony, the community of 300 established the Laguna Art Association, its mission: to promote the fine arts.

From a small one-room gallery to the Laguna Art Museum, the Laguna Beach arts community’s reputation and sustainability grew until 1932 when the community decided to start a summer arts festival, brilliantly hoping to entice those tourists just departing that year’s Summer Olympics in nearby Los Angeles to swing by for a spell. Thus was born the Laguna Beach Festival of the Arts.

Ever since its inception, a smash hit at each year’s festival is the Living Pictures Exhibit, inspired by the works of Lolita Prine. The Pageant of the Masters is the expanded, enhanced, and improved incarnation of the Living Pictures exhibit as we know it today. It was brought to life in 1935 by Roy Ropp, who originally called it “The Spirit of the Masters”.

Such an ages-old tradition would be nothing today without giving back to the community that built and sustained it. Each year, The Pageant of the Masters is responsible for millions of dollars in scholarships to art students, grants to local arts and cultural organizations, and by hosting various other events for the community – the annual Easter Egg Hunt, a Scottish Festival, and a Goat Show among them.

The 2007 Pageant of the Masters lasts for 8 weeks only, each “performance” containing 90 minutes worth of “living pictures”. Approximately 20 living works of art go on display, to the background accompaniment of a full orchestra playing a totally original score. So take you Pageant of the Masters tickets down to the Irvine Bowl some evening between July and September and experience something you’ve never seen before, and couldn’t even quite wholly imagine.