How Lunada Bay's Diwali Festival Went From a School Campus to a Sunset Dinner on the Bluff

On Saturday, November 14, the lawn at Lunada Bay Park will start filling at 4 p.m., about fifty minutes before the sun goes down. The first plates of catered Indian food go out at 4:30, so most guests will be eating as the light fades over the water. Signature cocktails will be sold, and the raffle starts at 6:30. Three years ago this event fit on a school campus. This year there are no tickets at the gate.

The Diwali ~ Lunada Bay's Festival of Lights is organized by Shikha Vidjearadji. Its history shows a small neighborhood party growing into one of the most planned evenings on the Palos Verdes Estates calendar. Each step up in size added structure: a city permit, a ticketing platform, a bar, a dress code and a capacity limit. If you plan to go on the 14th, that structure is what to plan around.

From a school campus to the bluff in three years

According to the City of Palos Verdes Estates' September 24, 2024 staff memo, the festival started in 2023 at Palos Verdes Intermediate School, where about 430 people attended. The next fall, Vidjearadji applied to the City for the first time to bring the event to Lunada Bay Park. The City Council approved that application.

The 2024 version was modest compared with this year's. The memo describes a 5 to 8 p.m. evening on November 2 with food prepared off-site, non-alcoholic drinks, a Bollywood DJ, henna art and photo booths. According to Palos Verdes Pulse, tickets that year were paid for by Venmo or Zelle sent directly to the organizer.

Since then, the event has kept getting bigger:

• 2023: Palos Verdes Intermediate School, about 430 attendees.
• 2024: Lunada Bay Park, November 2, 5 to 8 p.m. Non-alcoholic drinks, tickets paid by Venmo or Zelle.
• 2025: Lunada Bay Park, October 18. More than 700 guests, a cocktail bar, live dhol and more than $2,200 in raffle prizes, according to the Daily Breeze.
• 2026: Lunada Bay Park, November 14, 4 to 7 p.m. Online advance tickets only, limited capacity and a dress code.

The Daily Breeze account of the 2025 evening shows what that growth looked like on the lawn. The paper listed samosas, chicken tikka masala, dal makhani, naan, a mango lassi and chai cart, and rice pudding for dessert. Entertainment included Bhangra and Bollywood performances, a light robot show, a 360-degree photo booth, casino games, ice cream sundaes and a soft-play area for kids. The bar served drinks with names like Bollywood Breeze, Tandoori Sunrise and Firecracker on the Rocks.

Vidjearadji told the Daily Breeze that Diwali has been her favorite festival since childhood "mainly because of its meaning: light over darkness and the triumph of good over evil."

Why the date never sits still

Over three years at the park, the festival has fallen on three different Saturdays: November 2, October 18 and now November 14. The festival follows the Hindu lunisolar calendar. As the Daily Breeze explained, Diwali is celebrated during the months of Ashvin and Kartika, which run from roughly mid-September to mid-November.

In 2026, Drik Panchang's Los Angeles calendar puts Lakshmi Puja, the main Diwali observance, on Sunday, November 8. The Lunada Bay celebration comes six days later, on the following Saturday. That makes it one of the last Diwali gatherings of the season on the Peninsula. It also explains why the festival rarely sits in the same place on the calendar from one year to the next.

The 4 p.m. start puts sunset during dinner

The later date pushes the evening deeper into autumn, and the earlier start makes the most of it. In 2024 the festival ran from 5 to 8 p.m. This year it runs from 4 to 7. Timeanddate's Los Angeles table lists sunset at 4:49 p.m. on November 14, 2026. That figure is for the Los Angeles area as a whole, but it puts the light change about twenty minutes after dinner service begins.

Here is how the posted schedule lines up with the daylight:

1. 4:00 p.m. Gates open while the sun is still up.
2. 4:30 p.m. Dinner service begins.
3. About 4:49 p.m. Sunset, using the Los Angeles-area time.
4. 6:30 p.m. Raffle and prizes, after dark.
5. 7:00 p.m. The event ends.

For a festival of lights, this is a useful schedule. You arrive in daylight, the sky goes dark over the course of the meal, and the lights take over for the second half of the evening. Anyone planning photos should know that the window for daylight portraits closes soon after the food comes out.

A ticket is the only way in

This is where the festival's growth affects you most directly. The 2026 listing on Ticket Tailor says tickets are sold online and in advance only. All sales are final and non-refundable. The Daily Breeze's Peninsula calendar for October 22 to 28 adds that capacity is limited.

The five-ticket pack works out to $35 a person, $5 less than buying five tickets separately. That makes it the better choice if a few households on the same street are going together. The ticket includes the catered dinner and the DJ. Signature cocktails are sold separately. The listing advertises more than $1,500 in gift cards and raffle prizes. The dress code is Indian festive wear or elegant evening and cocktail attire.

Parking and the way in on the Lunada Bay side

The listing directs guests to park along Palos Verdes Drive West, Via Anacapa and Yarmouth Road. The entrance is on Via Anacapa, past Lunada Market. Lunada Market & Deli is listed at 2201 Palos Verdes Drive West, the same address as the park. Its own site says the market is open every day and the restaurant is open Wednesday through Sunday. That puts the festival entrance right at the plaza's front door, so allow a few extra minutes if you're driving in close to 4 p.m.

The City's 2024 approval shows how the first park edition worked behind the scenes. City staff found the event could run safely at the park and along Via Anacapa, and set up and monitored a temporary closure of that street. About 24 parking stalls on Yarmouth Road were made available to guests. Two City maintenance workers handled setup, teardown and traffic control, and their hours were billed to the organizer. The memo reported no fiscal impact to the City. Those terms applied to 2024. For 2026, rely on the parking and entrance details on this year's ticket page.

The 2023 edition drew about 430 people to a school campus. The 2025 edition drew more than 700 to the bluff. The next one starts at 4 p.m. on November 14 and admits only people who bought tickets in advance.

Big community evenings like this one are part of why Lunada Bay feels the way it does on a fall weekend. At Steinbeck Homes, Johannes Steinbeck pays the same attention to the details of the Peninsula's neighborhoods when he prepares a home for market, from how light falls across a room in late afternoon to how the street and plaza feel on a busy Saturday. If you're curious what your home might be worth, Request a Home Valuation.