community

Downtown Bakersfield's Six Theaters Drive Arts and Entertainment Scene

The Arts District and six local theaters anchor performances ranging from concerts and films to dinner theater productions.

By Bakersfield Things-to-do Desk · Published July 19, 2026

How we reported this

This article was written by AI from the linked sources and was not reviewed by a journalist before publishing. The Daily Bakersfield is part of The Daily Network and follows our reasonable editorial care.

Downtown Bakersfield's Six Theaters Drive Arts and Entertainment Scene — Photo by Aleksandr Zykov / Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Bakersfield's downtown Arts District centers on 19th and H Streets, featuring the historic Fox Theater opened in 1930 as its centerpiece for concerts, films, and community events.

The Downtown Arts District

The district draws residents and visitors to its core location at 19th and H Streets, where the Fox Theater hosts a range of programming that includes live music, screenings, and gatherings. This area serves as the primary gathering point for arts activity in the city, with the 1930 theater providing the main stage for many of these offerings.

Local Theater Options

The city hosts six local theater venues in total. Among them is the dinner theater Stars Bakersfield Music Theatre, which stages classics such as Funny Girl. Another is the family-oriented Gaslight Melodrama, located in a red barn on the town's outskirts and offering performances suited to a broad audience.

The Bakersfield Sound

Bakersfield is recognized as the West Coast's honky-tonk capital for the Bakersfield Sound, a hard-edged country style associated with Buck Owens and Merle Hagg. This musical tradition connects directly to the city's entertainment identity and complements the programming at its theater venues and the Fox Theater.

These elements together form the current framework for arts and entertainment experiences available in Bakersfield. Residents can explore the district and venues through standard public access and scheduled events listed by the operators.

References Sourced but Not Limited to:

Your newsroom. Shaped by you.

The Daily Bakersfield is in beta. AI may assist with research, summarising and drafting. Automated checks assess sourcing, accuracy and editorial risk before publication, and sensitive material is held for human review. Spotted something off, or want us covering a topic? Tell us. Your feedback is entirely optional and helps shape what we publish next.