Palm Springs now has a second Modernism Week. The organization behind the February festival has set its first full fall edition, Modernism Week October, for October 15 to 18, 2026, with more than 50 tours, films, dinners, and evening events across four days. Tickets went on sale August 1 and range from about $30 to $230 depending on the event. If February is the marathon, this is the long weekend: a tighter, more social program built for people who want the architecture and the parties without clearing a whole week.
Here is what the schedule actually holds, what is new this year, and how to plan a weekend around it.
What is Modernism Week October 2026?
Modernism Week is the nonprofit celebration of midcentury architecture, design, and culture that has drawn design pilgrims to Palm Springs every February for two decades. For years the fall calendar carried a smaller "Fall Preview." The 2026 October festival is its own event, running October 15 to 18 with a standalone lineup of more than 50 experiences. Lisa Vossler Smith, the organization's CEO, describes it as a curated set of tours, dining, social, and wine-tasting experiences alongside new tours built for the season.
The appeal of a fall date is simple. October light in the Coachella Valley is kinder than August, the evenings turn comfortable, and the crowds are thinner than the February crush. It is a good time to see the city's modernist bones without competing for every dinner reservation.
The tours worth planning around
The architecture tours remain the spine of the festival. The Premier Double Decker Architectural Bus Tour and the Modernism Week Architecture Tours cover the greatest hits of Palm Springs design from an open upper deck, and "The Homes That Define Palm Springs" bus tour puts the canonical houses in one route. Bus tours run roughly $100 to $130.
For the houses themselves, the Frey House II tour pairs with Palm Springs Art Museum day passes and remains one of the most requested tickets in the calendar, Albert Frey's glass-and-steel aerie built into the boulders above the city. The Sunnylands Historic House Tour opens the Annenberg estate in Rancho Mirage, an A. Quincy Jones design that hosted presidents. Closer to the center of town, the Downtown Palm Springs Village Green Historic Tour and the Rat Pack Playground walking tour trace the streets on foot.
Home tours this year include The Marquee at Twin Palms at about $40 and Blue Skies Village, new to the festival, at about $85. Walking tours generally fall in the $55 to $100 range.
What is new for the fall festival
This is the first time Modernism Week has produced a full fall festival rather than a preview, and several formats arrive with it.
The Modernism Week Fall Dining Series is the headline addition, multi-course dinners and tasting events at Palm Springs restaurants including Eight4Nine, Bar Issi, Trio, King's Highway, and Mr. Lyons Steakhouse, priced from about $120 to $230. Modernism Week After Dark brings a run of evening social events for people who want the festival to continue past sunset. There is a first-ever tour of the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway produced by Modernism Week, and the Blue Skies Village tour joins the lineup for the first time.
Around those, the schedule keeps the festival's familiar pleasures: films and presentations including the documentary "Arthur Elrod: Desert Cool," a Curated Vintage Event, a Swinging Sixties Casual Concours car show, the Midcentury Sunny Cycle bike tour, and live performances such as Nod to Mod at about $225.
How much does it cost, and how do tickets work?
Individual tickets run from about $30 to $230. Architecture bus tours land around $100 to $130, home tours from roughly $40 to $85, walking tours from $55 to $100, and the dining series at the top of the range from $120 to $230. Tickets went on sale August 1 at noon through the Modernism Week website, and the marquee tours, the Frey House and the dinners in particular, tend to sell first. A portion of proceeds supports Modernism Week as a nonprofit and other local preservation and neighborhood groups.
Why October in Palm Springs is a good time to look, not just visit
For anyone weighing a home in the desert, the fall festival is a useful window. It is the season the second-home market wakes up, when buyers who spent the summer elsewhere come back to look, and the modernist inventory that people cross the country to tour in February is the same inventory that trades here year round. Walking through a Frey or an Elrod interior is the fastest way to understand what the valley's architectural pedigree actually means, and why a well-kept Alexander or a restored Wexler holds its value the way it does.
The neighborhoods on these tours, the Movie Colony, Las Palmas, Vista Las Palmas, the Twin Palms tract, are the same streets where the best of the market changes hands. A weekend spent touring them is market research disguised as a good time.
FAQ
When is Modernism Week October 2026?
October 15 to 18, 2026, a four-day festival in Palm Springs with more than 50 events.
How is the October festival different from February's Modernism Week?
It is a shorter, standalone fall edition rather than the full week-plus February festival. It debuts a Fall Dining Series, After Dark evening events, a first Aerial Tramway tour, and the Blue Skies Village tour, while keeping the architecture bus tours, home tours, and films.
How much are tickets?
Individual events run from about $30 to $230. Architecture bus tours are roughly $100 to $130, home tours around $40 to $85, and the dining series from about $120 to $230.
When did tickets go on sale?
Tickets went on sale August 1, 2026, at noon through the Modernism Week website. Popular tours like the Frey House II and the dining series sell out first.
Which tours are best for a first-time visitor?
The Premier Double Decker Architectural Bus Tour gives the broadest overview, and the Frey House II tour is the single most iconic house you can see. Pair one of each with a Fall Dining Series dinner for a full weekend.
Plan your weekend, and your next move here
Modernism Week October is a short, well-edited introduction to why people fall for this city and end up staying. Norman Williams and Jacqulyn Stanton of The Stanton Williams Group at Compass live and work in these neighborhoods every day, from the Movie Colony to Las Palmas, and are glad to point clients toward the good stuff during festival weekend and after it, on the market and off. If a tour makes you start thinking about a place of your own, that is a conversation we have often.
Reach Norman Williams at 760.464.2190 or Jacqulyn Stanton at 760.702.2557, or see current Palm Springs listings at stantonwilliamsgroup.com.
Norman Williams (DRE #02051057) and Jacqulyn Stanton (DRE #01369783), The Stanton Williams Group at Compass.
