Ripon Almond Blossom Festival
Ages: 2 and up
Cost: Prices vary depending on activity
Parking: Yes - $5
Features: Stroller Friendly, Snack Stand, Restrooms, Family Friendly, Dog Friendly, First Aid Station, Picnic Area, Port-a-potty
The San Joaquin Valley is synonymous with California's finest stone fruit growers, and the small, historic town of Ripon celebrates that with its annual Almond Blossom Festival. The festival, which takes place during the last weekend of February, is a four-day family affair and is a classic country fair type event.
The annual spaghetti feed and the pancake breakfasts benefit the local community's charity clubs and associations; the Saturday morning parade through old town Ripon features the one and only Almond Blossom Queen as its guest of honor; a fun run or an 8K run is hosted on Saturday to work off all the delicious food and nut treats consumed; arts and craft booths, carnival rides and kid's events round out the weekend. The carnival is held in a dirt field, so strollers can get around but you may want to bring your jogging stroller! Also dogs are allowed, on a leash.
2 Reviews
April K
Reviewed on 01/20/2012
Maybe I missed something? In all fairness to the festival, we did arrive just as they opened but it seems that the opening times were different from booth to booth because although they charged us to park and there stalls were open, very little was out and ready to be purchased or viewed. Also, I felt like an inordinate amount of booths were "services" like churches and gyms. Not really something a 5 and 8 year enjoy.
The kids...more
sportydancermom
Reviewed on 02/28/2011
For a small town festival, there was a large selection of things to do! There were enough big rides to keep my kids, 9 & 11, occupied for over an hour; double loop, ferris wheel, sizzler, tornado, bungee bounce, etc. There seemed to be lots of choices for younger kids as well. We never made it to any of the games, but there seemed to be plenty to choose from. The food selection, none of it healthy, was fairly typical 'fair' food; BBQ,...more