Fairs and Festivals to wrap up summer with a blast
The Nevada County Fair kicks off this week; the Japanese Food & Cultural Bazaar prepares a feast for your eyes and your appetite; midtown's chalk and music festival returns for its 35th year; and more. Here are the fairs and festivals rounding out the end of summer.
Fairs and Festivals this July to Celebrate Summer
This year’s State Fair promises a nostalgia-fueled good time with everything from a full-size Back to the Future DeLorean to jumbo corn dogs; the Marysville Peach Festival celebrates 25 years of blushing sweetness; and more.
Q&A with Agustín Arteaga, new CEO and director of the Crocker Art Museum
On July 1, the Crocker Art Museum will welcome its first new director and CEO in a quarter century. Before taking the helm of the Crocker, Agustín Arteaga spent eight years as the director of the Dallas Museum of Art. Weeks before starting his new position, he talked to us about his vision for the Crocker’s future, the need for museums to reflect their communities, and the importance of raising our museum’s international profile.
The Picasso of Positivity
He is the most prolific public artist in Sacramento, with hundreds of works—from large-scale commissioned murals to decidedly uncommissioned guerrilla pieces—beautifying the urban landscape. Now, J.M. Knudsen is expanding his vision for a more creative city. As one of his influences, Pablo Picasso, said: “Action is the foundational key to all success.” But for all Knudsen’s ambitious goals, the core of his message for us all remains deceptively simple: “YOU ARE GREAT.”
Fun in the Sun at these June Fairs and Festivals
The El Dorado County Fair is off to the races, Sacramento Pride brings a dose of joy to Capitol Mall, the Sacramento French Film Festival offers up a slate of French exports, and more. Here are the fairs and festivals delivering plenty of summer fun in June.
Your 2025 Guide to Outdoor Movie Screenings in the Sacramento Area
Break out the lawn chairs and the popcorn, bring a light jacket for when the Delta Breeze rolls in, and cozy up with your friends and family for a summer night movie (and a few fall ones, too). Whether you’re in the mood for classics like The Goonies and Big, recent blockbusters like Wicked, or animated family fare like Moana 2, these grassy lawns, museum courtyards, and even swimming pools are the place to be.
Pretty Enough To Eat
Over the past year, Jeff Nebeker’s ceramic doughnuts have gone deliciously viral, with each new batch attracting lines around the block outside midtown’s Elliott Fouts Gallery. With National Doughnut Day fast approaching on June 6, we talk to the 68-year-old Sacramento artist and former baker about his “yum aesthetic.”
Q&A with NBA Great Bill Cartwright
As a five-time NBA champion, Bill Cartwright is unequivocally the winningest basketball star to ever emerge from Sacramento. The 7-foot-1 former big man is best known as the starting center who competed alongside Michael Jordan on the Chicago Bulls team that three-peated in the early ’90s. Now 67, the Elk Grove High alum and Gold River resident talks about growing up on a farm, his thoughts on today’s NBA, and why Sacramento “is the place to be.”
Out and About in May and June 2025
There’s an Englishman in Wheatland as Sting takes the Hard Rock stage, the ninth annual Sacramento Asian Pacific Film Festival lights up the screen at The Sofia, Channel 24 welcomes Leon Bridges to midtown at the city’s newest music venue and more. Here are 10 can’t-miss events rounding out the spring.
Where She Was From
Life for E.A. Hanks, who grew up in the Fabulous Forties as the daughter of Tom Hanks, may have looked like it was coming up roses. Too often, though, the reality was anything but, as the self-described “Sacramento girl” details in her poignant new book, "The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road", which follows a childhood shaped by her mother’s mental illness and a writer’s search for the truth, thorns and all.
The Art of Appropriation
A new museum retrospective spotlights the late Sacramento painter and professor Wayne Thiebaud as a master student of art history. From da Vinci to Picasso, great artists have always studied and copied their predecessors on the way to creating their own singular masterpieces. As this exhibit shows, Thiebaud is still teaching. The lesson: Imitation truly is the sincerest form of flattery.
Out and About in March and April 2025
Proud Mary keeps on burning in Broadway Sacramento's Tina Turner musical, everything beautiful happens at night for Capital Stage, Jack Gallagher is both funnyman and front man with his musical comedy show at The Sofia, and more. Here are 10 events helping this spring bloom that much brighter.
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