Kennedy Center Honors to Move to Capital One Arena for 2026 Ceremony

The 2026 Kennedy Center Honors will be held at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., the institution announced Friday, according to The New York Times. The ceremony is set for December 7.

The move takes the annual event out of the Kennedy Center Opera House, its longtime home, and into the roughly 20,000-seat arena where the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals play. The Honors have been the center's signature event since 1978 and are typically taped for a later television broadcast.

The change of venue comes as the Kennedy Center's main building is closed to the public. The Times reports that officials shut the building last month, citing safety concerns over aging infrastructure, after the board voted to close it immediately. A federal judge had previously issued a temporary block on a planned two-year closure for President Trump's $250 million renovation project. That ruling came in a lawsuit brought by Representative Joyce Beatty of Ohio, an ex officio member of the board, and found that trustees had not adequately reviewed the plan. Beatty contends that the maintenance concerns are a pretext, and the center is now asking the court for permission to proceed with the closure.

A separate dispute over the institution's name is also ongoing. After the board voted to add Trump's name to the center following last year's Honors, Judge Christopher Cooper ruled in May that only Congress can rename it and ordered the name removed. Last month, he also blocked the center from inscribing Trump's name on the building. The center is appealing the May decision, and according to the Times, Trump has said he would cancel the renovations if a higher court does not rule in his favor.

It has not been announced whether Trump will host this year's ceremony. He served as host in 2025 and personally approved that year's honorees. The Times notes that the save-the-date for the 2026 event features a photo of him onstage at last year's ceremony.

While mainstage performances have been moved out of the main building, the Reach, the center's smaller annex, remains open with limited programming.