When the light fades over the Arroyo Seco this Friday, the Stone Hollow Amphitheater at Kidspace Children’s Museum will trade its daytime clamor for the pulse of West African drums.
The performance opens the museum’s 2026 Sunset Music Series, a run of five Friday-evening concerts stretching from late June into August. Opening night, billed as “West African Rhythms,” features Le Ballet Dembaya, a youth-led ensemble that performs traditional West African drumming, dance and song. The series is included with general admission and free for members.
The museum, on North Arroyo Boulevard beside the Rose Bowl, funded the 2026 series in part with a grant from the Pasadena Community Foundation.
There are two performances, at 5:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., both in the open-air amphitheater, and the museum stays open until 8:00 p.m. Families can spread out across the campus, bring a picnic, or buy food from the café or visiting food trucks.
Le Ballet Dembaya has been an official group since 2015. Its name means “the dance of the family” in the Soussou language of Guinea, and the ensemble studies that country’s percussive traditions, playing djembe and dundun drums. Its drummers and dancers grew up performing together in Los Angeles, and they perform as an ensemble built around the traditions their parents and elders carried before them.
The opening night is the first of five themed Fridays. The series continues with Joy of Indonesia on July 10, an Afro-Latin Summer Jam on July 24, a Journey through the Philippines on August 7, and Folklórica de México on August 21. Each evening pairs a live multicultural performance with the museum’s regular hands-on exhibits, kept open past their usual close.
Kidspace, a nonprofit founded in 1979, sits on a 3.5-acre outdoor campus in Brookside Park near the Rose Bowl. Once a project of the Junior League of Pasadena, it has grown into one of the region’s busier family destinations, with more than 40 exhibits aimed at children roughly 10 and under.
The Sunset Music Series opens Friday, June 26, 2026, at Kidspace Children’s Museum, 480 North Arroyo Boulevard, Pasadena. Performances are at 5:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. in the Stone Hollow Amphitheater, and the museum remains open until 8:00 p.m. The concert is included with general admission and is free for members; reservations are recommended. Free parking is available in Rose Bowl Lot I, near the Jackie Robinson Baseball Field, and the museum is reachable by Metro and Pasadena Transit. Information is available at (626) 449-9144.
The ensemble’s name translates, roughly, to “the dance of the family” — a fitting one for a museum that built its summer around the same idea.
Editor’s note: No participant, organizer, or independent attendee was reached for this preview, which is drawn from the museum’s published event information and public records about the performers. Attributed voices should be added on outreach to Kidspace (Sara Jennings, 626-243-4518, sjennings@kidspacemuseum.org) and Le Ballet Dembaya.
