Annual Almond Blossom Festival

This is a fun, family-friendly, pet-friendly (pets must be on leashes) event. Conveniently located not too far off of the 99 Freeway in Ripon. Well organized. Plenty parking. Lots of volunteers to direct traffic. Rows of booths with interesting things/services. Lots of food trucks that offer a large variety of delicious options for a hungry tummy. A nice area with picnic tables available. Large area with carnival rides. Fun!

This Festival (compared to many others) was barely better than nothing...1. Way too cold. The temps were in the 40s right after sunset, and the vendors were there until 8:00 pm (which was nice for people who work nights), but it really should be a bit later in the season for warmer temps. 2. The dust from the dirt parking lot spread out through the whole Festival. 3. The extremely bright lights pointing straight at you the whole way from the parking area into the Festival just made it really hard to see anything. They need more lights, higher up, pointing down like street lights. Or those big lamps they use in construction sites. 4. No Tilt A Whirl in the Carnival. 5. No Onion Rings, or Deep Fried Artichoke Hearts, or Thai Ice Tea, or anything else we normally get at Fairs and Festivals anywhere.6. The Vendor Booths were OK, but a lot of them had cheap LED lights that do not light up things on tables. Strings of patio lights would be perfect hanging around the edges, inside the tents. They even make them with solar batteries.