Top 10 "All American Food Festival" in the Nation!
History:
It all started in 1992 with an idea by Dave Hernandez, a member of the Downtown Indio Merchants Association.
The rich heritage of the tamale, consistent community support and hard working tamale makers have created the festival’s tremendous success.
Recently, the Food Network-TV ranked the Indio International Tamale Festival in the top 10 “All-American Food Festivals” in the nation!
Festival’s Guinness World Records:
The World’s largest Tamale-over 1 foot in diameter and 40 feet in length, Dec. 4, 1999. The World’s largest tamale festival-with 120,000 in attendance, Dec. 2-3, 2000.
The Biggest Coachella Valley Festival
Proud Sponsor since 1995
The Riverside County Fair & National Date Festival is located in Indio, California, an oasis situated in the vast California desert, approximately 130 miles east from Los Angeles. The Fair started as a festival to celebrate the end of the annual date harvest in the desert region, the major commercial date-producing area in the western hemisphere.
Dates were an unknown commodity in the desert until 1903 when date palms were transplanted there from Algeria. By the early 1920’s enough acreage was planted to make dates a major crop for the area. Date groves in the Coachella Valley were and still are such a novelty that they became quite a tourist attraction.
With the popularity of the date gardens the idea was planted for the first Date Festival in 1921 to be held in Indio’s city park....
The Story of the 46th District Agricultural Association—The history of the Southern California Fair dates back to 1913 when the first Riverside County Fair was held at Chemawa Park. Over the next few years the fair changed locations and names, and in 1918 the Riverside County Fair Board was abolished and the new Southern California Fair Association wascreated that included Board of Directors from all over the county. This lasted until 1926 when theSouthern California Fair ceased due to financial reasons. In 1927, State Legislature formed the 46th District Agricultural Association (46th DAA). During this year, the Southern California Fair was reintroduced to the public sponsored by the 46th DAA. The Festival was a flourishing event with more than 100,000 exhibits, a large agricultural show and livestock show. Other popular features at the Southern California Fair included frog jumping, aeronautical exhibits, horse and auto racing, auto shows, parades, chariot races and an air show. The air show at the Southern California Fair was the most dramatic event showcased by Roman C. Warren, Cowboy aviator, from Riverside, who had flown under the arch of the Rubidoux Bridge and recreated his feat by flying under an exact replica built just for the Fair. In 1927 and 1928 Warren flew under that replica 13 times at 125 mph and thrilled thousands of visitors at the Fair. Then in 1931, the Board of Directors signed an agreement that would combine the Los Angeles County Fair with the Southern California Fair. Because of this, from 1931 to 1946 there was no official county fair in Riverside County. However the 46th DAA sponsored one of the largest Turkey Shows in the country, in Hemet, California from 1936 through 1942. In 1946, the 46th DAA sponsored the Farmers Fair & Festival. The annual event was held in Hemet until 1987, when it moved to the current location, at the Lake Perris Fairgrounds.
