Brookside Park

Brookside Park is the big city park on the floor of the Arroyo Seco in Pasadena, at 360 N Arroyo Blvd, directly south of the Rose Bowl. The City of Pasadena runs it and calls it the city's largest fully maintained park: 61.1 acres of ball fields and picnic groves. Jackie Robinson Baseball Stadium, with seating for 4,200, takes up the north section. The central section holds two lighted softball diamonds, a large lighted field for soccer and flag football, a speaker's platform with permanent seating, a play area, restrooms and drinking fountains. Barbecue pits sit in most of the picnic areas.

Concerts aren't the park's day job. The shows that land here are promoter-run outdoor events on the lawns, like the daytime-into-night electronic bills booked under the "Brookside at the Rose Bowl" name, with the stadium and the San Gabriel foothills as the backdrop. Each of those is ticketed on its own, and the event listing is where you'll find gate times, age limits and what you can bring. The city publishes none of that for the park itself, because on an ordinary day nobody needs it.

The park is open daily from 6 AM to 10 PM. The city says extensive parking is available off Arroyo Boulevard, though a ticketed show may sell its own event parking, so read the listing before you drive. There's no transit advice on the city's park page, so plan a ride share or a long walk from Old Pasadena if you're not driving. The Arroyo Seco around the park is protected parkland with 22 miles of trails, which makes an early arrival easy to fill.