The Bowl runs from roughly late spring into autumn, and it is one of the best things about summer in Los Angeles. Getting in and out of it is one of the worst.
Understand stacked parking
Most Bowl lots are stacked: cars park bumper to bumper and nobody leaves until the car in front does. If you are parked deep, you are waiting forty-five minutes after the last note whether you like it or not.
The drop-off option
Being dropped at the top of Highland and collected afterwards skips all of it. Arrange the pickup point before the show — mobile signal in the canyon after a concert is poor and everybody is calling at once.
Go early and eat there
You are allowed to bring food and, for most performances, wine. Arriving ninety minutes early with a picnic is the way locals do it, and it also means arriving before the worst of the traffic.
Bring a layer
It is an outdoor amphitheatre in a canyon. Twenty degrees warmer at 7pm than at 10pm is normal, and visitors are consistently caught out.