The California Avocado Festival is one of the largest free festivals in California with over 80 music acts on four stages. Come celebrate the importance of the avocado to the Carpinteria Valley by visiting the AvoExpo Tent to see avocado agricultural photos, historical photos, lessons in avocado grafting, FFA restored antique tractors, and the Largest Avocado Contest.
The festival is also home to the world's largest vat of guacamole! The food venue has dozens of booths with plenty of non-avocado and avocado dishes including avocado ice cream!
The California Avocado Festival is Carpinteria, California's largest family-friendly community celebration and one of the largest free festivals in the country. It attracts more than 100,00 people each year and takes place on the first weekend in October. It is held in downtown Carpinteria on Linden Avenue though parking is available at nearby schools. With strong emphasis on maintaining a "Carp first" event, the success of this festival stems from the idea of celebrating everything that makes Carpinteria special: Delicious avocado-inspired food, a wide variety of music, being a platform for local nonprofits and service organization to raise funds for their worthy causes.
The festival also raises scholarship funds for local youth in the areas of music, culinary arts, fine arts, and agriculture. In addition, not only is it a large festival, but it is also a "green" festival. The organizers of the event work to reduce the carbon footprint in leading a "zero waste" festival and divert nearly 100% of the waste to either recycling or composting instead of the landfill.
History
The idea of the California Avocado Festival began in 1986 at a meeting between community leaders Rob Godfrey, Connie Korbel, Debbie Murphy, Fran Puccinelli, Bob Ealee and John Franklin. A brainstorming meeting was called to create an ongoing weekend event that would benefit the fundraising efforts of the local non-profit groups. It seemed the plan would also help promote Carpinteria as a Southern California weekend getaway destination and boost our local economy.
Why Avocados?
Santa Barbara County is the third largest avocado producer in North America, with Carpinteria being a major contributor so it was a natural food festival in the making. The festival is held the first weekend in October because statistics show that October is one of the sunniest months of the year with the least amount of rainfall.
Parking
Carpinteria High School parking lot4810 Foothill Road
Carpinteria, CA 93013
Map
Directions for southbound cars: on 101 freeway exit at Linden Avenue. Turn left onto Linden Ave. Follow Park-N-Ride signs to the Carpinteria High School parking lot.
Directions for northbound cars: on 101 freeway exit at Casitas Pass Road and turn right. Follow Park-N-Ride signs to Foothill Road. Turn left on Foothill Road. Follow signs to the Carpinteria High School parking lot.
Board the school bus to take you to the festival. There is a fee to ride the bus between the parking lot and the festival.
