13 Best Things to Do in California’s ‘City of Festivals’

Located in the Coachella Valley about 125 miles east of Los Angeles, Indio has been nicknamed the “City of Festivals” for the many events held there. The annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts and Stagecoach Festivals are perhaps the best known, but a number of other celebrations fill Indio’s annual calendar. “Indio is a vibrant City where culture, community, art, and music come together, offering something new to discover year-round,” Indio’s Mayor, Glenn A. Miller, told Travel + Leisure.

Indio is surrounded by the San Bernardino, Santa Rosa, and San Jacinto Mountain ranges, offering gorgeous views, hiking trails, and outdoor recreation. The area’s desert climate means warm winters, hot summers, and nearly 350 days of sunshine a year. As a major agricultural center as well as a tourist destination, Indio’s farms and orchards produce cotton, grapes, onions, citrus, and dates.

We’ve rounded up some of the best reasons to plan a trip to Indio or to add a few days to your festival visit to get to know this thriving city.

Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival

Each April brings at least 250,000 visitors from around the world to the Empire Polo Club for the two-weekend festival. Top names and upcoming musical performers, an array of visual arts, dance competitions, games, craft activities, shops, food, and drink make Indio the place to be in April.

Stagecoach Festival

This three-day country music event at Empire Polo Club follows the Coachella Festival each April, celebrating music and culture with the best of country, bluegrass, folk, alternative country performances. Line dancing lessons, honky tonk music, barbeque, craft beer, and ferris wheel rides add to the entertainment.

The Riverside County Fair & National Date Festival

This two-week festival is held each year starting in mid-February at the Riverside County Fairgrounds in Indio. Events include rodeo performances, carnival rides, concerts, circus acts, monster truck shows, a Presidents’ Day Parade, livestock exhibitions, petting zoo, displays of dates from local growers, and more.

The County Fair began in 1921, and the event includes the National Date Festival highlighting the area’s agricultural significance, especially date cultivation and the celebration of the region’s Middle Eastern cultural influences. More than 15 types of dates are grown in the area.

The Indio International Tamale Festival

This annual festival is held each December in downtown Indio’s Miles Avenue Park. Open to the public, the free event is popular with families who enjoy delicious food, entertainment by local musicians, traditional Mexican dancers, luchadores (wrestlers), magicians, games, a tamale eating contest, and an ice skating rink.

Tamales, especially popular during the Christmas holidays, are bundles of corn masa stuffed with savory or sweet fillings and wrapped in a corn husk. A traditional Mexican comfort food, they are available to eat at the festival or to purchase and take home to enjoy during the season.

Shields Date Garden

Known for its high quality dates, charming café, mail order business, and delicious date shakes, Shields Date Garden opened in 1924. The Indio store offers a variety of dates, many developed by Shields experts, as well as date products like cakes, cookies, and candies. These date shakes are deliciously creamy concoctions made of milk or ice cream and blended with date crystals invented by Shield’s Date Garden.

Their film, “The Romance and Sex Life of the Date,” not as titillating as the title suggests, but quite educational, describes the labor-intensive process of date cultivation on tall palm trees. Begun as a lecture for visitors, the film evolved into a slideshow and now to a film presented in a small theater at Shields Date Garden.

Southwest Arts Festival

This acclaimed art festival is held each January at Indio’s Empire Polo Club. Featuring contemporary, traditional, and abstract art, as well as quality crafts, the event attracts more than 10,000 visitors durings its four-day run. Artists from around the world showcase their paintings, sculptures, photographs, glasswork, ceramics, and digital art.

In the Polo Club’s beautiful setting among mountains and desert, more than 200 artists participate. Food and beverage stands, places to relax in the shade and listen to music, and opportunities to watch the artists at work attract visitors who enjoy the atmosphere along with the art.

Fantasy Springs Resort Casino

More than a resort, Fantasy Springs Resort Casino offers a wide range of entertainment, from the best cover bands playing all-time favorites in the Rock Yard to big name entertainers in the Special Events Center. Professional boxing, iconic Mexican Lucha Libre, Latin dance music, the Price is Right Stage show, and Thursday night rock shows attract guests year-round.

There’s also bowling, casino gaming, golf at Indio’s Eagle Falls Golf Course, four bars, and restaurants from fine dining to casual. Resort guests have the hotel pool, Jacuzzi, fitness center, and concierge service.

Cabazon Indio Powwow

This annual celebration is hosted by the Cabazon Band of Cahuilla Indians to honor their culture and traditions. Held at the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino, the free event offers visitors an immersive experience. Dance competitions for all ages showcase diverse styles and colorful regalia, and drumming groups compete, demonstrating the rhythms central to traditional ceremonies.

Bird songs of the Cahuilla culture are performed, and traditional foods such as fry bread are available. Artisans offer jewelry, weaving, dream catchers, and other crafts, and visitors are invited to join dancers during non-competitive dances for an opportunity to engage with the cultural heritage of the Cabazon Band of Cahuilla Indians and other tribes.

Empire Polo Club

This 1,000-acre events venue was founded in 1987 for international polo tournaments. The polo season typically begins in December and ends in late March, with a variety of leagues, events, and tournaments, including women, juniors, and international players. Polo is an exciting game to watch, and tailgating, clubhouse seating, and private cabanas make it enjoyable for spectators. A time-honored tradition is the “divot stomp” where spectators may walk on the field during halftime to repair the divots made during play.

Coachella Valley History Museum

Historic buildings, annual events, a permanent collection, and special exhibitions offer a wide variety of educational and entertaining opportunities at Indio’s Coachella Valley History Museum. Its mission to preserve, interpret, and share artifacts about the history of the Coachella Valley is supported by a rich variety of exhibits and experiences. Free monthly admission days and Sunday storytimes encourage locals to take advantage of all the museum offers.

In the Smiley-Tyler House, once a personal residence, visitors can see a 1930s and 1940s kitchen, an eclectic collection of Mexican folk art, costumes, and textiles, and other exhibits. In the California Date History Museum, the exhibit covers the history of the date palm, the world’s oldest cultivated crop, from its origins in the Middle East to its introduction to the Coachella Valley. There’s a 1909 schoolhouse, a Japanese memorial garden, and a display of vintage farm tools.

Indio Performing Arts Center

Located in the heart of downtown, the Indio Performing Arts Center (IPAC) promotes arts and entertainment for the community, with theater, music, motion pictures, and other artistic mediums. Since Desert Theatreworks began performances at IPAAC in 2017, they have staged 45 productions, 25 special events, and have received numerous accolades and awards, attracting nearly 1,000 subscribers.

Desert Theatreworks also runs KidsWorks to inspire love of the performing arts for youth with summer, spring break, and after school programs, focusing on teamwork, creativity, and self-expression as well as performance skills. ArtsWorks is a specialized program for senior performers, inspiring creative expression, social connection, and personal growth through a variety of activities.

The Lights at Indio Golf Course

You can play golf until 10 p.m. among mountain views and balmy summer evenings at the only night-lighted golf course in the Coachella Valley. Indio Golf Course is one of the longest par-three golf courses in the country, with holes from 100 to 240 yards. With their full length driving range and short game practice area, you can tune up your game, and the fully stocked golf shop has whatever you need for a fun day or night of golf.

Indio Golf Course also features FootGolf, an 18-hole combination of soccer and golf, using soccer balls with similar rules to traditional golf. The course is designed to allow both traditional golf and FootGolf to be played simultaneously, and players of both games can either walk the course or use a golf cart. Snacks, beverages, beer, and wine are available.

Explore Downtown Indio

“There’s always something happening in Downtown Indio with new restaurants, bars, retail, and the brand-new Center Stage,” Miller told T+L.

Locals and visitors gather at the Saturday Farmers Market (Saturdays from October to May), join the crowd on Food Truck Fridays (5 to 10 p.m. weekly), and enjoy free live concerts at Center State on Second Saturdays. There’s free popcorn on monthly movie nights for outdoor family fun, and the first event included a classic car show. Touring Indio to see the public art, from murals on walls and in alleys to sculptures in parks, is a great way to get to know the city.