Riverside County

County Fairs Happen in Winter, Too

At least they do in Indio, which will welcome the Riverside County Fair & National Date Festival on Valentine's Day 2020.

Riverside County Fair & National Date Festival

THE COUNTY FAIR, as a concept, an idea, a notion, a daydream? We're going to place it squarely in the middle of summertime, with confidence and flair. There'll be summer flowers at our fair, and summer fruits, and all of the sunshine-drenched touchstones you might expect to see at a warm-of-air, toasty-of-temperature to-do. But there are those lucky places that enjoy a good share of sunbeams and nice days even when February is getting frosty elsewhere. Take Indio, the lovely longtime home of the Riverside County Fair & National Date Festival. It's a place that enjoys some truly winning wintertime weather, making the middle-of-February festivity perfectly timed. And how is this for perfectly timed? The 2020 spectacular opens on...

VALENTINE'S DAY, making it an ultimate date night, or date day, if you prefer to jumpstart your county fair fun in the morning. The midway will twinkle and the horses will trot and the bands will rock over several days, with a wrap-up on Sunday, Feb. 23. Some highlights? Chewy and sweet dates, for one, are always a yummy centerpiece, and you'll find them dotting a host of foodstuffs. The great George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic will kick off the concert scene on opening weekend, with a show on Saturday, Feb. 15. And the President's Day Grand Parade? Surely this is one of the only county fairs in the nation to coincide with the holiday, which pairs two American institutions on the same timeline.

FOR ALL OF THE ANIMAL SWEETNESS, gooey fair food temptations, and cool concerts, discover more now about this slice of summer-style merriment that is very much a wintertime must-do in the California desert.

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