13 Greatest Issues to Do in California’s ‘Metropolis of Festivals’

Situated within the Coachella Valley about 125 miles east of Los Angeles, Indio has been nicknamed the “Metropolis of Festivals” for the numerous occasions held there. The annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts and Stagecoach Festivals are maybe one of the best identified, however numerous different celebrations fill Indio’s annual calendar. “Indio is a vibrant Metropolis the place tradition, neighborhood, artwork, and music come collectively, providing one thing new to find year-round,” Indio’s Mayor, Glenn A. Miller, instructed Journey + Leisure.

Indio is surrounded by the San Bernardino, Santa Rosa, and San Jacinto Mountain ranges, providing beautiful views, mountain climbing trails, and outside recreation. The world’s desert local weather means heat winters, scorching summers, and practically 350 days of sunshine a yr. As a significant agricultural heart in addition to a vacationer vacation spot, Indio’s farms and orchards produce cotton, grapes, onions, citrus, and dates.

We’ve rounded up a number of the finest causes to plan a visit to Indio or so as to add just a few days to your pageant go to to get to know this thriving metropolis.

Coachella Valley Music & Arts Competition

Every April brings at the least 250,000 guests from all over the world to the Empire Polo Membership for the two-weekend pageant. High names and upcoming musical performers, an array of visible arts, dance competitions, video games, craft actions, retailers, meals, and drink make Indio the place to be in April.

Stagecoach Competition

This three-day nation music occasion at Empire Polo Membership follows the Coachella Competition every April, celebrating music and tradition with one of the best of nation, bluegrass, folks, various nation performances. Line dancing classes, honky tonk music, barbeque, craft beer, and ferris wheel rides add to the leisure.

The Riverside County Truthful & Nationwide Date Competition

This two-week pageant is held annually beginning in mid-February on the Riverside County Fairgrounds in Indio. Occasions embrace rodeo performances, carnival rides, concert events, circus acts, monster truck exhibits, a Presidents’ Day Parade, livestock exhibitions, petting zoo, shows of dates from native growers, and extra.

The County Truthful started in 1921, and the occasion consists of the Nationwide Date Competition highlighting the world’s agricultural significance, particularly date cultivation and the celebration of the area’s Center Jap cultural influences. Greater than 15 varieties of dates are grown within the space.

The Indio Worldwide Tamale Competition

This annual pageant is held every December in downtown Indio’s Miles Avenue Park. Open to the general public, the free occasion is fashionable with households who get pleasure from scrumptious meals, leisure by native musicians, conventional Mexican dancers, fighters (wrestlers), magicians, video games, a tamale consuming contest, and an ice skating rink.

Tamales, particularly fashionable throughout the Christmas holidays, are bundles of corn masa full of savory or candy fillings and wrapped in a corn husk. A standard Mexican consolation meals, they’re obtainable to eat on the pageant or to buy and take house to get pleasure from throughout the season.

Shields Date Backyard

Recognized for its prime quality dates, charming café, mail order enterprise, and scrumptious date shakes, Shields Date Backyard opened in 1924. The Indio retailer gives a wide range of dates, many developed by Shields consultants, in addition to date merchandise like muffins, cookies, and candies. These date shakes are deliciously creamy concoctions made from milk or ice cream and blended with date crystals invented by Defend’s Date Backyard.

Their movie, “The Romance and Intercourse Lifetime of the Date,” not as titillating because the title suggests, however fairly academic, describes the labor-intensive means of date cultivation on tall palm timber. Begun as a lecture for guests, the movie developed right into a slideshow and now to a movie introduced in a small theater at Shields Date Backyard.

Southwest Arts Competition

This acclaimed artwork pageant is held every January at Indio’s Empire Polo Membership. That includes modern, conventional, and summary artwork, in addition to high quality crafts, the occasion attracts greater than 10,000 guests durings its four-day run. Artists from all over the world showcase their work, sculptures, images, glasswork, ceramics, and digital artwork.

Within the Polo Membership’s stunning setting amongst mountains and desert, greater than 200 artists take part. Meals and beverage stands, locations to calm down within the shade and hearken to music, and alternatives to look at the artists at work appeal to guests who benefit from the environment together with the artwork.

Fantasy Springs Resort On line casino

Greater than a resort, Fantasy Springs Resort On line casino gives a variety of leisure, from one of the best cowl bands enjoying all-time favorites within the Rock Yard to large title entertainers within the Particular Occasions Middle. Skilled boxing, iconic Mexican Lucha Libre, Latin dance music, the Value is Proper Stage present, and Thursday evening rock exhibits appeal to friends year-round.

There’s additionally bowling, on line casino gaming, golf at Indio’s Eagle Falls Golf Course, 4 bars, and eating places from wonderful eating to informal. Resort friends have the resort pool, Jacuzzi, health heart, and concierge service.

Indio Powtwow

This annual celebration is hosted by the Cabazon Band of Cahuilla Indians to honor their tradition and traditions. Held on the Fantasy Springs Resort On line casino, the free occasion gives guests an immersive expertise. Dance competitions for all ages showcase numerous kinds and colourful regalia, and drumming teams compete, demonstrating the rhythms central to conventional ceremonies.

Chook songs of the Cahuilla tradition are carried out, and conventional meals akin to fry bread can be found. Artisans supply jewellery, weaving, dream catchers, and different crafts, and guests are invited to hitch dancers throughout non-competitive dances for a possibility to interact with the cultural heritage of the Cabazon Band of Cahuilla Indians and different tribes.

Empire Polo Membership

This 1,000-acre occasions venue was based in 1987 for worldwide polo tournaments. The polo season usually begins in December and ends in late March, with a wide range of leagues, occasions, and tournaments, together with ladies, juniors, and worldwide gamers. Polo is an thrilling recreation to look at, and tailgating, clubhouse seating, and personal cabanas make it satisfying for spectators. A time-honored custom is the “divot stomp” the place spectators might stroll on the sphere throughout halftime to restore the divots made throughout play.

Coachella Valley Historical past Museum

Historic buildings, annual occasions, a everlasting assortment, and particular exhibitions supply all kinds of academic and entertaining alternatives at Indio’s Coachella Valley Historical past Museum. Its mission to protect, interpret, and share artifacts concerning the historical past of the Coachella Valley is supported by a wealthy number of displays and experiences. Free month-to-month admission days and Sunday storytimes encourage locals to make the most of all of the museum gives.

Within the Smiley-Tyler Home, as soon as a private residence, guests can see a Nineteen Thirties and Forties kitchen, an eclectic assortment of Mexican folks artwork, costumes, and textiles, and different displays. Within the California Date Historical past Museum, the exhibit covers the historical past of the date palm, the world’s oldest cultivated crop, from its origins within the Center East to its introduction to the Coachella Valley. There’s a 1909 schoolhouse, a Japanese memorial backyard, and a show of classic farm instruments.

Indio Performing Arts Middle

Situated within the coronary heart of downtown, the Indio Performing Arts Middle (IPAC) promotes arts and leisure for the neighborhood, with theater, music, movement footage, and different creative mediums. Since Desert Theatreworks started performances at IPAAC in 2017, they’ve staged 45 productions, 25 particular occasions, and have acquired quite a few accolades and awards, attracting practically 1,000 subscribers.

Desert Theatreworks additionally runs KidsWorks to encourage love of the performing arts for youth with summer season, spring break, and after college packages, specializing in teamwork, creativity, and self-expression in addition to efficiency expertise. ArtsWorks is a specialised program for senior performers, inspiring inventive expression, social connection, and private progress by way of a wide range of actions.

The Lights at Indio Golf Course

You’ll be able to play golf till 10 p.m. amongst mountain views and balmy summer season evenings on the solely night-lighted golf course within the Coachella Valley. Indio Golf Course is likely one of the longest par-three golf programs within the nation, with holes from 100 to 240 yards. With their full size driving vary and brief recreation observe space, you possibly can tune up your recreation, and the absolutely stocked golf store has no matter you want for a enjoyable day or evening of golf.

Indio Golf Course additionally options FootGolf, an 18-hole mixture of soccer and golf, utilizing soccer balls with related guidelines to conventional golf. The course is designed to permit each conventional golf and FootGolf to be performed concurrently, and gamers of each video games can both stroll the course or use a golf cart. Snacks, drinks, beer, and wine can be found.

Discover Downtown Indio

“There’s at all times one thing occurring in Downtown Indio with new eating places, bars, retail, and the brand-new Middle Stage,” Miller instructed T+L.

Locals and guests collect on the Saturday Farmers Market (Saturdays from October to Could), be part of the group on Meals Truck Fridays (5 to 10 p.m. weekly), and revel in free dwell concert events at Middle State on Second Saturdays. There’s free popcorn on month-to-month film nights for outside household enjoyable, and the primary occasion included a traditional automobile present. Touring Indio to see the general public artwork, from murals on partitions and in alleys to sculptures in parks, is an effective way to get to know the town.