KCON, the Nisei Week Parade and 626 All Land on the Same Weekend. Here's the Order to Do Them In.

Three crowds, three parking answers. The Convention Center's own posted event rate is $35 to $45, Santa Anita charges nothing, and Metro caps a day at $5. Plus the Little Tokyo streets that close Sunday at 4.

Three of the summer's biggest ticketed crowds have booked themselves into the same 72 hours. KCON LA runs Friday through Sunday, August 14–16, across two downtown buildings; the 626 Night Market runs the identical three days at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia; and the Nisei Week Grand Parade closes four Little Tokyo streets on Sunday afternoon. The Dodgers are home all three days on top of it. We cross-checked every date, hour and posted price against the organizers' and the venues' own pages this morning, and the useful finding is this: the only one of the three that charges nothing to park is the one an hour east, and the only one that charges $45 is the one you can reach on a $1.75 fare.

Here is the order that costs the least and wastes the least of your Saturday.

Friday: do 626, and drive to it. The night market opens at 3 p.m. and runs to 11 p.m. at Santa Anita Park, 285 West Huntington Drive, with entry at Gate 3 (Huntington and Holly), Gate 5 (Huntington) or Gate 8 (South Baldwin), and — the line that decides your Friday — "parking is free at Santa Anita Park," per the market's own event page. The same page says there is no time limit on how long you can stay. Friday is the night to spend there because it is the one evening this weekend when nothing downtown is competing for the same freeway.

Friday and Saturday downtown belong to KCON. The convention side occupies South Hall, Kentia Hall and the 300-series meeting rooms of the Los Angeles Convention Center's South Building, per the Convention Center's own event listing, which tells ticket-holders to park in the West Hall or South Hall garages. The M Countdown concerts are across the street at Crypto.com Arena, where the arena's event page lists doors at 6:30 p.m. and an 8 p.m. show on all three nights. The Dodgers host Milwaukee at 7:10 p.m. Friday and 4:15 p.m. Saturday, per MLB's own schedule data — which, for the record, now files Dodger Stadium under the name UNIQLO Field.

One Saturday correction, because it will save somebody a trip. The Nisei Week festival opens Saturday, August 15, and runs through August 23 — but its Plaza Festival, the cultural exhibits and family programming inside the JACCC, is listed for August 22 and 23, the following weekend. If you go to Little Tokyo on Saturday expecting the festival's main grounds, you will find Little Tokyo, which is lovely, and not the festival.

Sunday is the collision, and it is survivable. First pitch is 1:10 p.m. The Grand Parade runs 4 to 6 p.m., starting on Central Avenue, heading west down 2nd Street, north on San Pedro Street and east on 1st Street. KCON's doors open at 6:30. The 626 Night Market is running 3 to 11 p.m. the whole time. Four events, one afternoon, and exactly one of them has a hard start you cannot move.

The parade-to-arena handoff works on one train. The parade's last leg runs east on 1st Street; the Little Tokyo/Arts District station sits at 402 E. 1st Street and is served by the A and E lines, per the Little Tokyo Community Council. Pico Station, an eight-minute walk from the Convention Center, is served by the same A and E lines, per the Convention Center's own directions page, which also lists 7th St/Metro Center at 10 to 15 minutes' walk and LATTC/Ortho Institute at 10 to 12. Parade ends at 6, doors at 6:30, no transfer in between. That is the whole plan.

Now the part that costs money. The Convention Center's garages run "flat rates of $35–$45 … based on event and location," across the South Hall, West Hall and Venice garages, and they take credit and debit only — "cash or checks are not" accepted — per its posted parking page. Note which garage you are aiming at: the same page says the West Hall garage is accessible via LA Live Way only, which is not a detour you want to discover at 7:45 p.m. on a one-way downtown street.

The arena's numbers are stranger and worth reading before you pick a lot. Crypto.com Arena posts 3,300 spaces in its own lots, with Lot W at "a flat rate ($10–$50 plus city parking tax depending on the event)" and event parking listed at $40, per the arena's Getting Here page. The non-event rate on the same page is the one to watch: $10 for the first two hours, then $15 for each additional half hour, to a $40 daily maximum. Lot W and Lot E are open 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily; every other lot opens 90 minutes before the event. One more thing to settle by phone rather than by hope — the Convention Center posts general garage hours of 5 a.m. to 9 p.m., "depending on events, and … subject to change," and the arena show that night starts at 8.

We added up the weekend, and the gap is not close. Three days of Convention Center event parking at its own posted range is $105 to $135. Three days on Metro is $15, because Metro's fare page puts a one-way ride at $1.75 and caps a day at $5 — pay for three rides, ride free after that — with an $18 ceiling on any seven days and free transfers within two hours when you tap. Children under 6 ride free with a fare-paying adult. Same three days, same three buildings, a $90-to-$120 spread, and the train version does not require anyone to find LA Live Way in the dark.

626 is the exception, and it is honest about it. The market's own page says taking the A Line to Arcadia Station and then the Arcadia Green Line bus — or walking roughly a mile — "is the only public transit option for Santa Anita Park events." The Green Line connects the Metro station with Santa Anita Park, City Hall, USC Arcadia Hospital, The Shops at Santa Anita and the Arboretum, and the fare is 50 cents for riders 5 to 61, with one free transfer between Arcadia's fixed routes and free rides for seniors, riders with disabilities and children under 5, per the city's own fixed-route page. The catch is what that page does not publish: it lists no weekend or evening service hours for any of the three lines. The market runs until 11 p.m. Drive to this one. The lot is free.

The bag rule, which is where the line actually forms. Crypto.com Arena permits small clutches and wallets under 5 by 9 by 1 inches; medical and parental bags up to 14 by 14 by 6 inches go through X-ray screening, and everything larger goes into a Binbox locker near the Kobe Bryant Entrance, per the KCON event page. A convention day at the Convention Center and an arena show at night are two different bag policies on one wristband. Pack for the stricter one.

So: 626 on Friday, in a car, in the free lot. KCON on Saturday, on the train, with a wallet that fits the ruler. Sunday on the A Line — parade at 4 on 1st Street, doors at 6:30 at Pico, and $5 of fare between them. That leaves the $45 flat rate for people who did not read this far.

One standing note: hours, routes and posted rates move, and this page reflects what the organizers and venues published on August 11, 2026. Every entry above links to the page it came from, and that page is the one that wins.