Events and Festivals for Riverside
There are a lot of festivals that happen every year in Riverside, and many of them are focused on the downtown area.
Every year they host the Dickens Festival which is held during the month of February which has been used to enhance the feeling of community within the county as well as the communities in Southern California by creating many literary events and help to provide a family oriented as well as educational literary entertainment with activities such as the street bazaar that has costumed characters, free entertainment, vendors, classroom study, workshops, exhibits, lectures, pageants, plays, living history presentations, and musical performances.
Then during March, there is the Riverside Airshow which is held at the Riverside Municipal Airport. This event brings in over 70,000 people and there are well over 200 acres of community group exhibits, aircraft displays, food and drinks, helicopter displays, military vehicle displays, children’s activities, and even a car show.
March Field Airfest event which is also referred to as Thunder Over the Empire. This event is a huge airshow that is held at the March Air Reserve Base. It is a huge event for the Inland Empire as well as the city. The show has performances from the Air Combat Command, USAF Thunderbirds, and many other military demonstrations.
The Riverside International Film Festival is held in April and it shows a lot of films from all over the world. It is sponsored by the businesses within the town as well as local universities. The previous festivals have shown well over 175 films.
October brings the Ghost Walk which is sponsored by the California Riverside Ballet. This spooky adventure takes you through some of the most historical places around, and even lets you visit some of the oldest buildings while volunteers lead the tours and tell you many stories about ghosts, ghouls and things that go bump in the night.
The Long Night of Arts and Innovation is hosted in October for a single night in downtown Riverside. This is a signature event that is used to show off all the talent for visual and performing arts, science and technology for different community colleges, art organizations, innovative companies, school districts and universities by connecting them to professors, performers, artists and professionals.
At the end of October, The Mission Inn Hotel & Spa begins the decorations for the Festival of Lights. It is the day after Thanksgiving that there will be a lighting ceremony that includes live music, fireworks and a few speeches. The Inn covers the property in more than 3 million lights and hundreds of animated characters. After the lighting ceremony, there are many horse drawn carriage rides, ice skating, and carolers which all make up the festival. The local community groups, restaurants, and cafes help to contribute to the festival and it continues until New Years Day.
During December, there is also the Festival of Trees and it is used to help raise money for the Children’s Unit at the Medical Center which includes Neonatal intensive care unit, pediatric intensive care unit, as well as the child abuse and neglect unit. This festival attracts over 30,000 people every year and has raised well over $5 million for the children’s units.