Acoustic Sunsets, Glen Ellen Concerts

Acoustic Sunsets

Wednesdays 5:30-7:30pm, early May to mid-Sept

Glen Ellen

Ticketed

On Wednesday evenings from early May to mid-September, Sonoma Botanical Garden in Glen Ellen stays open until 8 for Acoustic Sunsets. Live music plays 5:30 to 7:30pm in the garden's grassy outdoor amphitheater, local Sonoma County vintners pour tastings, and guests bring picnics. Well-behaved dogs on leash are welcome.

The series is included with garden admission and free for members. It is a small, unhurried concert in a big garden, the kind of evening that ends with people lingering on the lawn after the last song.

Sonoma Botanical Garden amphitheater

12841 Hwy 12, Glen Ellen 95442

Glen Ellen

When

Wednesdays 5:30-7:30pm, early May to mid-Sept

Cost

Included with garden admission (~$17 adult); free for members

Scale & Longevity

Since 2024 · Wednesdays · A garden founded in 1987

Website

How It Works

Suggested Routes

The setting is the reason. The garden holds a large collection of Asian plants alongside California natives on its hillsides, and the evening light on those hillsides is something to see.

Arrive early and walk the paths before the music starts, then settle on the lawn with a glass and a picnic as the valley cools. Glen Ellen is a good place to stay the night, so the drive home can wait until morning.

Sonoma Botanical Garden

Organizer

Sonoma Botanical Garden in Glen Ellen, founded in 1987, grows a large collection of Asian plants and California natives and hosts Acoustic Sunsets in its amphitheater.

Visit organizer site →

A Garden Grown From Wild Seed

History

The garden began with Jane Davenport Jansen, who bought this hillside property in 1968, part of it an abandoned sandstone quarry. In 1987 she sponsored the first of many seed-collecting expeditions to Asia, working with partners that included the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and the plants raised from that wild-collected seed became the heart of Quarryhill Botanical Garden.

The annual expeditions continued until 2017. In 2021 the garden took a new name, Sonoma Botanical Garden, and widened its mission to include California native plants.