Every February, Palm Springs stops pretending to be a regular desert city and leans fully into what it is: one of the most intact collections of mid-century modern architecture in the country. Modernism Week is eleven days of home tours, double-decker bus rides, film screenings, and cocktail parties built around that fact. If you care about architecture at all, it's worth building a trip around.
The 2026 dates are February 12 through 22. There's also a shorter fall edition, October 15 through 18. The February run is the main event, with over 450 individual events across the eleven days.
What Modernism Week Is
The festival is organized by a nonprofit and has been running since 2006. It started as a single home tour weekend and grew into a calendar that covers architecture walks, design-focused shopping events, lectures by architects and preservationists, film screenings, and parties. The Parker Palm Springs typically hosts the big opening night celebration.
Palm Springs is the right backdrop for this because the city has the density. The Coachella Valley was a testing ground for modernist architects in the postwar era. Albert Frey, Richard Neutra, John Lautner, Donald Wexler all worked here. The geography helps too: flat lots, mountain views, and a client base that wanted something new.
The Events Worth Booking First
Premier Double Decker Bus Tour. This is the flagship event and the one that books up fastest. The 2.5-hour tour passes by the most significant commercial buildings and residential homes, with expert narration. Tickets run about $130. It operates daily from February 12 through 21. Book as early as possible.
Twilight Bus Tour. Same concept as the daytime tour but starts at sunset, so the desert light does its thing on the buildings. Thirteen architecturally significant structures, $100 a ticket. If you had to pick one bus tour, this one photographs better.
Home Tours. The individual home tours are where the festival earns its reputation. These are private residences, usually not open to the public any other time of year. Featured homes change annually. In 2026, The Marquee at Twin Palms (a 1957 home reimagined recently) and The Soleil House (a 1963 property redesigned by Trina Turk) were among the featured tours. Tickets range from $40 to $125 depending on the home and whether a reception is included.
Lectures and Screenings. Many of these are free or low-cost. The Palm Springs Art Museum runs programming throughout the festival, and there are usually architect-led walking tours of specific neighborhoods. These don't sell out the way bus tours do, so they're good to leave open for planning closer to arrival.
Opening Night Party. February 12 in 2026 had a Modernist Motown theme. These opening events draw a crowd and typically sell out, so if you want the full social experience, buy early.
Tickets and When They Go On Sale
Tickets for Modernism Week go live November 1 at noon Pacific Time. That's when the high-demand events disappear. The double-decker bus tours and popular home tours can sell out within hours. Set a calendar reminder.
Tickets are available at modernismweek.com. There's no official discount for buying multiple events, but purchasing a pass bundle sometimes makes sense if you're planning to attend five or more ticketed events.
Navigating the Festival as a Visitor
The events are spread across the city. Palm Canyon Drive is walkable, but many of the home tours and neighborhood walks are in residential areas that require driving or rideshare. If you're planning multiple events in a day, map them out in advance and cluster what you can.
Weekends are the most crowded. If you have flexibility, weekday events feel more relaxed and the lines at popular installations are shorter. The walking tours are better on weekday mornings before the heat.
The Uptown Design District, roughly the stretch of Palm Canyon north of Alejo, concentrates a lot of shops, galleries, and restaurants that participate in the festival. It's worth building some time there even if you don't have a specific ticket.
Staying in a Mid-Century Home
Part of what makes Modernism Week different from a typical festival is that you can sleep in the thing you're celebrating. Palm Springs has a high concentration of genuinely original mid-century homes available as vacation rentals, with the flat rooflines, post-and-beam construction, and indoor-outdoor flow intact.
The Sundune is a mid-century condominium in Palm Springs, built in the same era as many of the homes on the Modernism Week tour circuit. Walking out to the pool and then to a double-decker bus tour of the city's architectural history hits differently than commuting in from a hotel. The location puts you close to the core festival area and everything on Palm Canyon.
The Fall Edition
The October festival runs four days (October 15 to 18 in 2026) and is a smaller version of the February event. Fewer home tours, fewer bus tour dates, but also smaller crowds and cooler temperatures. If you missed February or want a lower-key version, October is worth a look. Tickets for the fall edition go on sale closer to the date.
Practical Notes
The festival runs rain or shine. February temperatures in Palm Springs average around 73 degrees during the day, which makes the bus tours and walking events comfortable. Evenings drop into the 50s, so layers matter for the twilight tour.
Parking near event venues fills quickly on weekends. Downtown Palm Springs has a few public lots, but rideshare is easier if you're doing multiple stops. Many attendees rent bikes for the weekend.
The full schedule for all 450+ events is posted at modernismweek.com once it goes live, usually in late October or early November before the February festival.
For the broader Palm Springs architecture context outside of festival week, the Palm Springs Mid-Century Architecture Guide goes deeper into the specific neighborhoods and architects worth knowing before you arrive.