Mixtapes & Misfits: Free Movies and Music Outdoors for the Summer

UCSB Arts & Lectures just released its impressive slate of events for the 2026-27 season. But before diving into everything the fall, winter and spring seasons gather under the A&L auspices, there is the 15th season of the free Summer Cinema series with which to happily reckon.

These Friday night communal screenings at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse Sunken Gardens downtown are a longstanding staple of summer in Santa Barbara. Mixtapes & Misfits is the theme for this year’s iteration of the series, which runs from July 10-August 28 and encompasses seven offbeat coming-of-age stories, ripe with all the pleasing mayhem inherent in the genre, from big emotions to iconic music, and the quirky characters who make revisiting that time of life a lark and a laugh.

This year the movies show in chronological order of their release: Pretty in Pink, Say Anything…, La Bamba, Rushmore, Love & Basketball, Napoleon Dynamite, and Hairspray.  (No screening on August 7 due to Fiesta’s Las Noches de Ronda at the location).

A collaboration between A&L and the Santa Barbara County Office of Arts & Culture, the events are much more than movie screenings, and have turned into a cherished Santa Barbara summertime tradition where folks spread out early on blankets and lawn chair to picnic, party and congregate. These movie nights include live DJs spinning tunes, giveaways, food trucks, and more, adding to the gloriously summeresque atmosphere. The movie starts once the sun has set and the stars are out, around 8:30 pm. 

https://artsandlectures.ucsb.edu/events-tickets/free-summer-cinema