Weekend: Free Festival of the Kite

The weather is ready, and so is Redondo Beach, for this sandy-sweet staple

Festival of the Kite: If you're 43 years old, and you grew up in Redondo Beach, and your family has always been sweet on high-flying nylon works of art, chances are good that you've spent your whole life going to this long-running, late-winter, totally free gathering. It is year 43 for this quintessential above-the-waves party, indeed, there shall be contests and activities, and the weather clearly has been ordered up for ideal, breezy, ocean-close, look-at-'em-twirl kite sights. Have your own dragon, cube, or butterfly? Simply want to watch? Go Redondo from noon to 5 on Sunday, March 12.

Nowruz Celebration: Celebrate the Iranian New Year with a beautiful costume parade, a multitude of musical presentations, an appearance by the Djanbazian Dance Company, a display devoted to Haft Sin (the seven symbolic items seen at the new year), and kid-sweet activities aplenty. It's a day-into-evening event, with much joy, looking-forward-ness, and community at its heart. Join in at UCLA's Royce Hall and Dickson Court on Sunday, March 12.

Big Eats: Two sweet-making outfits are baking up some buzz over the second weekend of March, with Sprinkles Cupcakes randomly distributing surprise $250 gift cards from its Cupcake ATMs and Portland's Voodoo Doughnut making its California debut at Universal CityWalk. The mondo Disney California Adventure Food & Wine Festival opens for many days of many delish meals. And a quintet of starry chefs'll go toque-to-toque at the friendly Cochon555 competition at the Viceroy in Santa Monica. At the heart of the flavorful event, which also has a focus on fine vino? Products are "sourced responsibly." Learn more.

Big Art: The 14th Factory is a colossal-of-scale art happening that'll fill "...over three acres of an empty industrial warehouse and lot on the outskirts of downtown Los Angeles." With the effervescent aim to ultimately "uplift & inspire" per founder Simon Birch, the 14 interlinked spaces brim with a host of paintings, installations, videos, and more, all artworks created by artists who hail from around the globe. Debut date: Friday, March 10. And on that same date? ArtNight Pasadena, a free event, will spotlight 18 pay-nothing museums and galleries around the Crown City. 

Big Space: The vast cosmos, especially around black holes, can surprise and bewitch. So it might be a tad surprising to read this: The very highly attended JPL Open House is not this weekend. It is in May, on the 20th and 21st, but to join the Mars-marvelous, universe-amazing to-do, you'll need a ticket. Those tickets become available on March 11 — repeat, that's Saturday, March 11 — and they are free. So will they fly faster than a comet? We wouldn't even want to pit a Jet Propulsion Laboratory Open House ticket against a comet, speed-wise, because, sure, both would move in a veritable, beautiful blur.

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