On the last weekend of August, people heading to the Daisy Chain Fields Music Festival parked near the new In-N-Out Burger a half mile from the festival grounds. When they found the drive-thru still closed, they said so on social media. The Orange County Register put it plainly: "They were six days early."

In-N-Out opened on Friday morning, Sept. 4. It was the first tenant at The Canopy at Great Park, Almquist Development's new 12-acre center. That missed burger stop is a good guide to the next two months. The park's holiday calendar has fixed dates and times. The Canopy's opening dates are still mostly unknown. Through December, whether an event night ends at a restaurant near the park depends less on which event you pick and more on which week it falls in.

The calendar runs on fixed dates

The City of Irvine has set the Great Park's late-fall season, and the dates won't change:

1. Halloween Movie Night, Friday, Oct. 30, at Great Park Live. Gates open at 5:30 p.m. Minions & Monsters starts at 6 p.m. and Hocus Pocus at 8 p.m., both on large LED screens. Admission and parking are free, and leashed dogs are welcome. Bring a blanket or a low-back chair. Food and drinks are sold on site, and outside food and umbrellas aren't allowed.
2. 44th Annual Holiday Faire, Saturday, Nov. 7, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Arts in Irvine fills the Palm Court Arts Complex and Hangar 244 with about 100 local artists and makers selling ceramics, jewelry, home décor and other handmade work, with live holiday music. Admission is free, you don't need to register, and the City recommends parking in Lot 2. The vendor list and event map are posted at artsinirvine.org/holidayfaire.
3. Illuminate Irvine, Saturday, Dec. 5, starting at 3 p.m. The same day, the Holidayz at the Park light display opens in the Palm Court. It runs daily from dusk to 9 p.m. and includes walk-through displays and a family photo spot in Santa's sleigh.

The City also runs holiday-themed classes at the park. Fees and age ranges vary, and you register at yourirvine.org.

Of the three, only the movie-night listing mentions food for sale. The City's Holiday Faire and light-display pages don't, so dinner on those nights comes down to what's open nearby.

What's open nearby, and what's still on the way

When The Canopy is finished, its operator says it will have more than 90,000 square feet of retail, dining and daily services. Its homepage still says "Coming late 2026!" Most of the tenants were named back in March, but In-N-Out is the only one with an opening date so far. The day it opened, the Orange County Business Journal reported five more businesses that "will begin opening this year."

Here's where the announced food and grocery tenants, plus the five newest names, stand as of late October 2026:

Free People Movement and Rylee + Cru, both retail, were also in the March announcement, with no opening dates given. The Register says T&T is planning to open "in the spring." So the store most likely to change weekly errands in the Great Park Neighborhoods should open well after the holiday lights come down.

That's why the table matters for the calendar above. On Oct. 30, In-N-Out is the one confirmed place to eat at The Canopy. Each of the five businesses that open before Dec. 5 adds another option for a light-display evening. Ice cream after Illuminate Irvine depends on McConnell's opening first, and nobody has published that date yet.

"This is just the beginning, with many more openings ahead." Dan Almquist, founder and CEO of the developer, in the Orange County Business Journal

Almquist, the San Juan Capistrano developer, has done this kind of center before. The firm built River Street Marketplace in San Juan Capistrano and the Rodeo 39 and Rodeo 72 public markets in Stanton and Whittier. The Canopy's own announcement said "several shops and eateries" would open by the end of the year, which points to a phased opening, not one grand-opening day.

The second phase is already under construction

The opening schedule stretches even further across the street. The City's October 2026 Great Park design and construction report describes a second Canopy site going up next to the first one.

Hangar 10 is a former base-era aircraft hangar being turned into a single-story building for retail, food and drink, and recreation on the Canopy 2 site. Construction started in September, with completion expected by summer 2027.

The Canopy 2 Site Improvements will add four more retail buildings, a parking lot and a Hornet Drive extension that connects to The Canopy. Completion is expected by winter 2027/28.

The Bosque Bridge will be a walking and biking bridge, separated from traffic, between the Bosque Trail network and The Canopy and Hangar 10. Work was set to begin this month, with completion expected in fall 2027.

The bridge will give the Bosque trails a direct crossing to The Canopy, and that crossing is about a year away.

Work you'll pass inside the park this season

Construction is also underway inside the park, and some of it is in places holiday visitors use:

• Bosque Enhancement. New landscaping and a new playground along the Bosque between Cadence and Benchmark. Work began in February and is expected to finish by winter 2026/27.
• Aviator Hall. Building 369 is a 30,000-square-foot base-era structure in the middle of the Cultural Terrace. It's being renovated into what the City calls its main event center. Demolition has started, and the report gives no completion date.
• Shade Structure Phase 2. Thirty more shade structures next to the soccer fields, play areas and Championship Row. Work is expected to start in November and finish by summer 2027.
• Field restoration after Daisy Chain. The City reported repair and restoration work on the soccer fields and park grounds affected by the Aug. 29 festival.

The larger pieces are further off. The report expects construction on the 22-acre Lakes to begin in spring 2027. The nearly two-mile Heart Loop path is expected to finish in spring 2028. The permanent 10,000-seat Great Park Amphitheater is on a 2028 to 2030 construction schedule. Through December, Great Park Live, the Palm Court Arts Complex and Hangar 244 remain the main event venues.

Planning an evening around both schedules

The holiday calendar is easy to plan. The Canopy is the part to check before you go. On a given night, a plan could look like this:

• Friday, Oct. 30. Gates at Great Park Live open at 5:30 p.m., and you can't bring outside food. Eat before you arrive or buy food inside. In-N-Out is the only Canopy tenant open so far.
• Saturday, Nov. 7. The Holiday Faire runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with parking in Lot 2. That leaves a full afternoon to see which Canopy tenants have opened since September.
• Saturday, Dec. 5, and after. Illuminate Irvine starts at 3 p.m., and the Palm Court lights stay on until 9 p.m. every night after that. By then some of the five businesses due this year may be open. Check The Canopy's site the week you go. The tenant list above is from late October.

The Canopy opening tenant by tenant, Hangar 10 rising beside it and the Bosque Bridge connecting them both to the trail network will change everyday life in the Great Park Neighborhoods over the next two years. If you live near the park and want to talk about what that buildout means for your street, Nicole Christopherson and the NMC Realty team are glad to help. Book an Appointment and we'll go through the timeline with you.