Food Festivals in Southern CA

Everytime I go to the food section of the library I take a look at the book Food Festivals of Southern California to see what food events are happening this month but I always forget what I read by the time I get home. When I went to the library last week I checked out the book so that I could post events for San Diego and surrounding counties on my blog.

February:

National Date Festival (Indio)
Mid-February
619/863-8247

April:

Orange Blossom Festival (Riverside)
Spring date/month varies.
800/382-8202

Renaissance Pleasure Faire (San Bernadino County)
April-June; 9 weekends.
800/52-FAIRE

Scandinavian Festival (Thousand Oaks)
Third Saturday.
805/493-3151

Avacado Festival (Fallbrook)
619/728-5845
Food, entertainment, contests

Balloon & Wine Festival (Temecula)
909/676-4713

Grapefruit Festival (Borrego Springs)
Third weekend in April
619/767-5555

May:

Summer Farmer's Market (Coronado)
May-October. One Weekend a month.
619/424-4000

Cinco de Mayo Celebration (Oceanside)
619/722-1534
Food, entertainment

Chili Cook-off (Apple Valley)
619/247-3521.
Food, contests.

Strawberry Festival (Oxnard)
Third weekend.
800/2-OXNARD

June:

Hollywood Bowl Summer Festiaval (LA)
June-Sept.
213/972-7300

September:

Grecian Festival By-the-Sea (Long Beach)
Labor Day Weekend
562/494-8929

Newport Seafest (Newport Beach)
714/729-4400
Food, entertainment, arts and crafts, games, boat show.

Oktoberfest (Huntington Beach)
714/895-8020
Food, brew, entertainment.

Oktoberfest (Torrance)
310/327-4384
Food, entertainment, games, yodeling.

Apple Blossom Festival (Oak Glen)
Third weekend.
909/790-9470

Apple Days Festival (Julian)
Mid-Sept. to Mid-November
619/765-1857

October:

Pie Festival (Malibu)
First Saturday.
310/457-7505

Lobster Festival (Redondo Beach)
Third weekend.
310/374-2171

Harvest Hoedown Festival (Fallbrook)
619/728-4031
Food, entertainment, contests.

Oktoberfest (Carlsbad)
619/434-6093
Food, entertainment.

Oktoberfest (Huntington Beach)
714/895-8020
Food, brew, entertainment.

December:

International Tamale Festival (Indio)
First weekend.
800-44-INDIO

Christmas on the Prado (San Diego)
619/239-2001
Food, entertainment, arts and crafts, Santa Lucia Procession.

Winterfest (Lake Elsinore)
909/674-3124
Food, parade, entertainment, arts and crafts, horse-drawn carriage rides.

For more events north of Los Angeles County, for recipes from these events, and more contact information, please check out the book: Food Festivals of Southern California by Bob Carter.