During LA28, the official competitions will be just one part of the massive summer extravaganza happening in Los Angeles.
A kaleidoscope of international hubs will rise throughout the county, each hosting events such as watch parties, concerts, regional meals, immersive installations and meet-and-greets with newly crowned medalists. Known as hospitality houses, these temporary gathering places give traveling fans a home away from home beyond the competition venues, while offering Angelenos a chance to experience the cultural thrills of the Olympics, even if they weren’t able to snag tickets to the Games.
“You can go to 20 countries at the Olympic Games without ever leaving the host city,” said Tiffany Assman, founder of House Party Blog, which covers Olympic hospitality houses.
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At the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, the hospitality houses were as diverse as the countries themselves: The China House opened with traditional Chinese fan and sword performances while Ireland staked its claim at a pub, hosting night-after-night parties with live music and céilí dance lessons. Los Angeles hopes to welcome about 60 to 70 hospitality houses for LA28, up from roughly 40 houses in Paris, according to Dilpreet Sidhu, the city’s deputy mayor of international affairs. At the same time, Team USA fan events will take place across the region.
The partnerships between countries and local host cities can be mutually beneficial. Paul Krekorian, Los Angeles’ executive director of major events, said hospitality houses can help generate “meaningful economic opportunities for our city by supporting nearby local businesses and investing in the workforce that makes these events possible.” In Santa Monica, Switzerland’s planned use of the Camera Obscura building has “helped us to reimagine the future” of the landmark, said Jennifer Taylor, the city’s economic development manager. In Venice, where Australia will make the venue 57 Windward its LA28 home, Councilmember Traci Park said she wants the Games to “accelerate meaningful improvements in accessibility, public spaces and neighborhood infrastructure that residents and visitors will enjoy for generations.” And in San Pedro, Councilmember Tim McOsker wants Croatia’s presence to draw visitors into the historic downtown, arts district and surrounding businesses.
In choosing a location, countries look for more than a scenic backdrop. Factors include neighborhood demographics, transportation and proximity to hotels and Olympic venues. Funding varies by house: Some countries rely on government or Olympic committee resources, others on private support and sponsorships.
While many countries are still scouting venues and negotiating agreements, several have already confirmed where their houses will be. Here’s a look at where you’ll find some of these cultural hubs in the summer of 2028. Details on programming — both free and fee-based experiences — will be announced at a later date.
Veteran Hollywood film producer Kathleen Kennedy will oversee the opening and closing ceremonies at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, the organizing committee said Wednesday, giving the executive behind the blockbuster Star Wars and Jurassic Park franchises a leading role in staging what has been billed as the biggest athletic event in modern history.
Kennedy will helm a team of producers designing the look and content of dual ceremonies that will kick off the Summer Olympics on July 14, 2028 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Exposition Park and SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. She also will lead the team designing the closing ceremony and both ceremonies for the Paralympics, which begin a month later.
“This appointment reinforces LA28’s commitment to harness the unparalleled creativity, cultural influence and storytelling power of the entertainment capital of the world,” an announcement from the Olympic organizers said. The result will be “ceremonies that are distinctly Los Angeles and leave a lasting impression on the global stage.”
At LA28, Kennedy will serve as head of ceremonies and content, a post that had been held by another big-name entertainment executive, Peter Rice.
Rice had a long career at 20th Century Fox, climbing the ranks to become president of 21st Century Fox in 2017. He recently was named chief content officer at Netflix. LA28 said in its announcement that Rice would remain on as an executive producer.
Kennedy ended a 14-year run as president of Lucasfilm in January, a changing of the guard at the Star Wars studio.
LA28 Chairman Casey Wasserman heralded Kennedy as a legend and “one of Hollywood’s all-time greats,” adding: “I can’t think of anyone better to conjure the magic of Hollywood than Kathleen.”
In her own statement, Kennedy said she and her husband and producing partner, Frank Marshall, had attended almost every Olympics since the Games last came to Los Angeles, in 1984. “Sport remains one of the great unifying experiences we share,” she said.
Among the films Kennedy helped produce were “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” and “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” She co-founded Amblin Entertainment with Steven Spielberg, and that company made hits like “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” and the “Back to the Future” trilogy.
The production company she founded with Marshall made “The Sixth Sense,” “Seabiscuit” and “Lincoln.”
To stage the largest Olympics in history, LA28 is looking toward the cosmos for inspiration.
The committee in charge of bringing the Games back to L.A. for the first time in 44 years announced its slogan for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games on Wednesday, hoping to rally athletes, volunteers and fans behind a simple call: “Stars align.”
“‘Stars align’ is when preparation meets opportunity,” LA28 chief marketing officer Alex Merchán said. “So together that creates something extraordinary, and that’s what we seek to do here.”
The slogan that will set the stage for the next 21 months developed organically within the organizing committee over several years, Merchán said. Only during the past 12 or 13 months did the team really start imagining ways to bring the phrase to life.
“Stars align” is a nod to the “stars in motion” emblem for the 1984 Olympics. It takes inspiration from the 50 stars on the U.S. flag. It speaks to L.A.’s Hollywood reputation.
But it also captures how the largest sporting event in history came to L.A. By the time the Olympics open on July 14, 2028, it will have been 11 years since the city won the original bid. More than a decade of planning and a lifetime of training for competitors align during the once-in-a-generation sporting event.
“Athletes commit so much and dedicate so much and sacrifice so much to get [to the Games] that we ground the idea in that effort, in that alignment,” Merchán said. “Alignment is teamwork, coordination, hard work and commitment.”
Along with the International Olympic Committee’s official motto of “Faster, Higher, Stronger — Together,” each organizing committee uses a slogan to share its vision for the Games. The 1984 Games in L.A. pioneered the marketing tactic with “Play a Part in History.” Those Games then turned into the most financially successful in history, relying largely on private sponsorship to produce a $235 million profit that has sponsored youth sports in L.A. for decades. Now official slogans are as ubiquitous as the Olympic rings when walking around the Games.
LA28 looked at translations of the slogan in the next 14 most-popular languages within the Olympic and Paralympic movement, finding equivalent messages. Some were exact translations. Others needed a different collection of words. The message always stayed the same.
“The simple idea of stars and constellations have, in recorded history, been a part of every group around the world,” Merchán said. “Every country, every tribe if you will, have looked upon stars as something filled with optimism.”
The Games return to L.A. at a high point. The popular Paris Games, which used the motto “Games wide open” to set the tone for a resurgent post-pandemic movement, reinvigorated the Olympics with international broadcast records and 12 million tickets sold across the Olympics and Paralympics.
LA28 is on pace to exceed some of those marks. With more than 6 million Olympic tickets already sold, the private organizing committee will open first-come, first-served Olympic ticket sales next year. Tickets for the first Paralympics in L.A. will go on sale in 2027. The Olympic torch relay will begin in spring 2028, uniting all 50 states en route to the opening ceremony. Wednesday’s slogan is only the starting point of LA28’s constellation of events, Merchán said.
“If we get this right,” Merchán said, “we like to think that we can bring the world together and connect people under this banner.”
With less than two years until the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles, serious questions remain about funding and coordination for the Cultural Olympiad, the arts and culture program accompanying the Games.
The Cultural Olympiad is a measure of a host city’s commitment to the creative arts and can have a lasting impact on a region’s artistic legacy. The 2024 Olympics in Paris featured more than 2,500 projects over a period of three years. And while Los Angeles arts organizations and neighboring cities are already commissioning work and developing neighborhood celebrations, critics say a more formal and cohesive plan has failed to materialize.
At a legislative hearing Wednesday at the California Science Center, lawmakers pressed organizers for answers to a basic question: How much money will there be to support the Cultural Olympiad, and when will that money reach the artists and communities expected to bring it to life?
Former Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, director of the Los Angeles Initiative at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs, criticized the failure to mobilize cultural planning earlier. Los Angeles was awarded the Games in September 2017, giving it nearly 11 years to prepare.
“I’m not trying to point a finger here, but it just didn’t happen,” he said.
The delay had consequences, he warned: major artists book engagements years in advance, limiting what organizers can now arrange.
“So that’s the kind of thing that we lose. But that doesn’t mean that the Cultural Olympiad is a flop.”
Yaroslavsky also described the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival as a catalyst for Los Angeles’ cultural growth. “It allowed us to think much bigger,” he said.
“The urgency to share what our local communities can expect has been pressing, and many local cities and nonprofits could no longer wait for outside direction,” said Sofia Klatzker, Santa Monica’s cultural affairs manager.
She outlined Santa Monica’s proposed cultural framework, “Land and Water Here and Now,” encompassing performances, exhibitions, public art and international cultural exchanges.
The joint hearing of the Senate’s Special Committee on International Sporting Events and the Legislature’s Joint Committee on the Arts brought together about 100 city and county officials, LA28 Cultural Olympiad leaders and arts advocates. Their presentations revealed a patchwork of efforts, with municipalities and organizations moving ahead while seeking clearer coordination and financial commitments.
Sen. Benjamin Allen (D-Santa Monica), who chairs both committees, convened the hearing.
A September report from City Administrative Officer Matthew W. Szabo and Chief Legislative Analyst Sharon M. Tso puts LA28’s Olympic and Paralympic Games budget at $7.263 billion.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Dwayne Jones, LA28’s senior vice president for the Cultural Olympiad and stakeholder events, did not disclose a precise cultural budget or how much funding had been secured. He described a fundraising ambition in the tens of millions of dollars, with conversations underway with philanthropic donors and LA28 partners.
The Olympic cauldron is lit at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum ahead of the launch for ticket registration to the 2028 Summer Olympic Games Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Los Angeles.
(Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)
Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D-Los Angeles) repeatedly questioned how those resources would reach artists and community organizations. After the hearing, she conceded that “there are a lot of unanswered questions.”
LA28 Cultural Olympiad Executive Director Nora Halpern and Jones provided updates on plans first outlined in May, including an official Cultural Olympiad mark recognizing participating programs and a digital calendar and mapping platform. They also said programming spanning fashion, film, food, music, performing and visual art, will be announced in 2027.
Applications for the mark are expected to open in early 2027. The calendar and mapping platform is scheduled to launch in January 2028.
Separately, Halpern said artists had been selected to create 16 official posters — eight Olympic and eight Paralympic — through a process involving nominations from regional curators. The posters will be unveiled in July 2027.
Jones also described free community film screenings paired with local food and musical performances, as well as plans for dance, theater and spoken-word programming. Further announcements will come in 2027, he said.
City and county cultural affairs officials presented complementary efforts. Los Angeles’ Department of Cultural Affairs general manager Daniel Tarica said $15 million from its existing budget has been committed to its core program.
The department reported completing 19 programs and events this year, citing World Cup celebrations that combined sports screenings with art-making and dancing. The department is continuing exchanges between local and international artists and testing neighborhood programming ahead of an official summer 2027 launch. Additional initiatives, including 15 new Olympic and Paralympic murals and disability arts celebrations, depend on further funding.
Los Angeles County’s Department of Arts and Culture is building its 2028 effort around existing grants, youth programs, public art and neighborhood partnerships, Director Kristin Sakoda said. Plans include a Year of Creative Youth, an Olympic arts education curriculum being developed with the Olympic Museum in Switzerland, and outreach through parks, libraries and cultural venues.
Arts administrators from Long Beach and West Hollywood described local initiatives. Long Beach Cultural Affairs Officer Griselda Suarez reported investing $135,000 in 12 groups to pilot cultural projects, while Rebecca Ehemann, arts manager, City of West Hollywood, said the city was completing its first year of implementing a multiyear creative plan.
Arts for LA CEO Gustavo Herrera presented Mosaic LA, a community-led initiative intended to coordinate neighborhood cultural programming and sustain investment beyond 2028. Its proposals include a pooled fund, technical assistance and shared promotion, alongside exploration of a new county-level arts funding mechanism. Cultural districts would anchor the effort.
Its financing remains unresolved. “There are budgets that have been laid out, but no resources that have been allocated to it yet,” Herrera said.
The discussion also touched on the federal government’s role. Congress has appropriated $1 billion through FEMA’s State Homeland Security Grant Program for Olympics-related security, planning and other costs, and $94.3 million for Games-related transportation assistance. Those commitments are separate from the cultural fundraising described at the hearing.
Assemblymember Christopher M. Ward (D-San Diego) called for federal financial support and “a little bit of a better attitude,” saying recent political rhetoric was unhelpful to attracting visitors to California.
Earlier this month, President Trump drew criticism for remarks at a Nebraska rally about Iran potentially striking Los Angeles and San Diego. He subsequently said his comments had been misinterpreted.
The potential benefits of the Games are not automatic, UCLA professor of history Dr. Tawny Paul cautioned. Her research found that large Olympic visitor numbers do not necessarily translate into higher museum attendance, underscoring the importance of local audiences and programming before and beyond the competitions.
For Smallwood-Cuevas, securing additional state support requires a clearer account of the needs.
“At the end of the day, we need a concise, coordinated and clear ask,” she said after the hearing. “That’s rooted in some real facts.”
