San Diego International Airport is proud to showcase the region’s vibrant arts community through our Performing Arts Program. Featuring a dynamic mix of live concerts and rotating artist residencies, travelers can experience everything from local music to innovative, site-specific performances. While concerts bring energy and entertainment to terminals year-round, our curated residencies highlight exceptional talent through multi-month engagements that transform the airport into a stage for artistic expression.
Let us be part of your travels! Check out these concerts, performances, and special events on your next adventure.
Current Performing Arts Residency
San Diego thrives on the influence of transplants and newcomers. This Spring, A Step Beyond honors the experiences of people making a home in San Diego and brings those journeys of belonging to the airport’s terminal through a series of new dances entitled Migration: Making a Home in Transit. A Step Beyond is a North County San Diego–based creative youth development organization that empowers young people through dance, academic support, and family services. This year marks the graduation of the organization’s fourth cohort of students, who have participated in the program from elementary school through high school and are now moving on to college and career paths. Performed by student dancers, alumni, and teaching artists, the project’s site-responsive dances are created with passengers. Each dance reflects the performers lived experiences and examines how we navigate the meaning of home amid changing environments and the realities of everyday life.
The Performing Arts Residency Program at SAN provides a platform for artists to develop and present new work that enriches the airport experience while supporting San Diego’s vibrant performing arts community. This five-month, process-oriented residency invites two artist groups or collectives to create and perform original pieces across a range of contemporary disciplines—including dance, music, theater, and cross-disciplinary digital media—transforming the airport into a space for artistic exploration and public engagement.
San Diego International Airport (SAN) offers travelers a vibrant array of live performances through its Performing Arts Program. This initiative features an ongoing concert series and special events that showcase a diverse lineup of local talent, including singer-songwriters, composers, musicians across various genres, dancers, and theatrical or oratorical performers . Notable recent performances include the percussion-based dance ensemble DrumatiX, which transformed ambient airport sounds into rhythmic performances , and Malashock Dance’s “You Are Here / Usted Está Aquí,” a project that interpreted travelers’ stories into choreographed pieces.