This year’s WOW Festival will showcase 28 productions over four days at UC San Diego, most of which are free.

For four days, the La Jolla Playhouse’s 2026 “fun and fearless” WOW (Without Walls) Festival will activate at four hubs at UC San Diego, showcasing hundreds of local, national and international artists in immersive productions.

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION] by Drew Petersen/ Image courtesy of La Jolla Playhouse

This year’s WOW festival will take place from Thursday through Sunday, April 23-26, with 28 projects in theater, circus, puppetry, visual arts, dance and storytelling.

Admission to the WOW Festival is free, though a few performances are tickets from $10 to $29.

The WOW selections this year are “amazing,” said Playhouse managing director Debby Buchholz at an April 7 festival preview at UCSD’s Epstein Family Amphitheater. 

Terra Firma by Sandra Portal-Andreu/Image courtesy of La Jolla Playhouse

WOW is a “don’t-miss festival,” said Mia Fiorella, director of experiences and activations, further describing the event as “joyful chaos.”

Among the joy will be WOW alumni Jesca Prudencio’s production “With Honors,” which Prudencio called a “dance party experience” masquerading as a made-up graduation ceremony. 

Audience members will be treated as important participants, given “degrees” and more.

“We should not be waiting for the few times in our life … to feel the experience of [being] accomplished,” Prudencio said.

My Body’s Wake by Sensory Dimensions/Image courtesy of La Jolla Playhouse

Also showing: “My Body’s Wake,” a “love letter to our disabled community,” said Casey Hall-Landers of Sensory Dimensions. 

“My Body’s Wake” will include different sensory experiences such as movement, music, projection and body paint to “invite you to witness our resilience, our dark humor and our joy,” Hall-Landers said.

This will be the third consecutive year the WOW Festival is held at UCSD. 

Mucca Pazza Plays Around by Mark Ashton/Image courtesy of La Jolla Playhouse

“The arts connect us,” said Alysson Satterlund, UCSD’s vice chancellor for student affairs and campus life, adding UCSD’s “decades-long collaboration with the La Jolla Playhouse truly exemplifies the extraordinary arts leadership, innovative creativity, exceptional talent and excellence that are hallmarks of both of our organizations.”

Visit the WOW Festival website for full showtimes, itinerary suggestions and ticket information. 

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