Riverside County Fair & National Date Festival

It’s a date! The annual Riverside County Fair & National Date Celebration, which takes place February 16–17, began as a festival to commemorate the completion of the season’s date harvest and continues to draw in over 250,000 guests to celebrate sweet and sometimes savory date-inspired dishes. 

Guests will be enthralled by the desert oasis known as the Riverside County Fairgrounds in Indio, California. The fairgrounds will be filled with big thrills, live music, cute animals, and of course, date food favorites. In addition to the dates, the festival atmosphere will be enhanced with blue ribbon contests and traditional amusement rides. 

As for the foodie favorites, vendors will be dishing up date-infused fare all weekend long. If you have a sweet tooth, be sure to test out tahini date salted caramels, chocolate date smoothies and kumquat tarts with crunchy almond date crust. Or, if you’re seeking something more savory, you can’t go wrong with bacon-wrapped blue cheese-stuffed dates, manchego prosciutto date flatbreads and cheesy date and walnut sausage rolls.

For more information, visit www.datefest.org.