For the first time in the ceremony’s history, the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony will not be held at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and will instead by held at Washington, D.C.’s Capital One Arena.
This year’s annual ceremony, scheduled for Dec. 7, 2026, will take place in the downtown arena, which is the home of the Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards and a concert space as well. A Kennedy Center spokesperson called the arena “one of the nation’s premier live entertainment venues” in a statement.
The announcement comes after a year of turmoil over the Kennedy Center facility, as the Trump administration has pushed to close the facility, saying it is in desperate need of construction and rehabilitation. While the President Donald Trump-appointed board has pushed for the facility’s closure, remodel, and renaming to honor Trump, Democratic lawmaker and ex officio member of the board Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH) has sued the administration, aiming to keep the facility open.
Since the first Kennedy Center Honors ceremony in 1978, the ceremony has been held in the facility’s Opera House every year except for 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 ceremony was postponed until May 2021 and was still held at the Kennedy Center property, but in various locations inside and outside of the main building.
The annual Kennedy Center Honors ceremony acknowledges several performing artists for the roles they have played in American culture. According to a save-the-date obtained by the Washington Examiner, on the invitation, the Kennedy Center marketed the move to Capital One Arena as a continuation of the ceremony’s goals of honoring those performing artists.
A Kennedy Center spokesperson said in a statement that the center will announce the 2026 honorees “at a later date.”
The 2025 honors ceremony took place at the Kennedy Center, with President Trump in attendance. The December 2025 ceremony was the first Kennedy Center Honors Trump attended, as he skipped out on the event during his first term in office.
Trump said that he had a say in selecting the 2025 honorees, saying he removed a few options that were too “woke.”
The five artists honored at the 2025 event were country music singer George Strait, disco singer Gloria Gaynor, Broadway actor and comedian Michael Crawford, filmmaker and actor Sylvester Stallone, and the rock band Kiss.
Beatty’s lawsuit over the facility’s name change and closure for reconstruction is ongoing, but Kennedy Center executive director Matt Floca has temporarily ordered the facility closed for safety reasons, citing “severe structural deterioration” of the center. Floca said the initial closure would last for one week, but would be extended as needed.
According to an internal email obtained by NBC News, Floca extended the closure of the facility this week as safety teams continue to examine the building. The facility has been closed since Sept. 16.