SHHH: Don't tell people. Wait. That's not we mean at all. Tell everyone. Tell people who live around California, who already know, and tell people you know who live in other places, who might not know. Tell them we have a great, ride-laden, farm-fun county fair, right here in Riverside. In the winter. We know. There are weird, unwritten rules about a wintertime county fair. Somehow the concept of a county fair has come to be associated almost solely with summer and fall. With shorts-wearing time, with longer days where you drink cold drinks and ride breezy rides.
HERE'S THE THING: All of those things go down in Riverside during the Riverside County Fair & National Date Festival. And all in February. So don't "shhh," we say. Brag away. And do more than brag: go. It's a big party, complete with a midway and concerts (Third Eye Blind in 2011) and delicious date-y products and hundreds of other quaint and quirky fair touches.
DATES: We're talking day-of-the-month dates now, not pitted, sweet, eat-'em dates. The time dates are Friday, Feb. 18 through Sunday, Feb. 27. The place is Indio, not the city of Riverside, note.
DEAR OTHER PLACES... Are you sold on the wintertime county fair yet? Think it over. We like county fairs that go year-round, as they practically do 'round these parts. We never take that for granted.
