Sierras and Gold Country Festivals – 2022

Outdoor adventures, visiting cool little museums and sampling tasty Sierra Foothills wines are just a few of the many things to see and do in the Sierras and Gold Country area, but including a local event on your itinerary will almost certainly add to the fun. Some people even plan their trips around these dates!

The festivals list below, arranged by month, can help you easily determine if there’s one happening during your visit. You’ll notice that the spring and fall seasons are the most popular time for events of this type, and that’s because the summers here can get a bit warm. Spring and fall are fabulous, though!

You’ll find a bunch of festivals in Yosemite and Lake Tahoe, as well as in Mammoth Lakes and all the historic Gold Country towns.

You may also notice that wine is a popular draw, which is quite fitting since the area is known for its award-winning vines. Alternatively, many of the events feature beer, and music is often thrown into the mix for good measure. There’s truly something for everyone in this area.

For each entry on the list, you’ll find the date(s) it’s scheduled to occur, plus a link to a website that provides additional details. We recommend you make note of the website because it’s wise to check again and verify the event details closer to the actual date. The list includes dates for 2022 festivals as well as some with 2021 dates. ***Events for which a 2022 date is not yet available are marked with a triple-asterisk.***

Many of these are annual events that are held around the same time every year. While we plan to check and update this list from time to time, if a 2021 event looks interesting you can always click through to see if the organizer’s website is now updated.

You may just want to browse the list to see if any of the festivals especially appeal to you. Or, if your travel dates are already set, you can use these handy jump links to advance to a specific month’s events quickly:

January ### February ### March ### April ###
May ### June ### July ### August ###
September ### October ### November ### December

January

Yosemite Chef’s Holidays
Usually held in January, but “Hibernating” for 2022 (and CANCELLED for 2023)

February

Mariposa Lions Club Crab
February 5, 2022

Snowfest, Tahoe City
February 25 through March 6, 2022

Nevada City Mardi Gras Celebration
February 27, 2022

March

St. Piran’s Day Festival, Grass Valley
March 5, 2022

Behind the Cellar Door, Amador County
March 26 & 27, 2022

April

Foothill Wine Festival, Folsom
April 2, 2022

Taste of Mariposa
April 2, 2022 – Tickets on sale December 1, 2021!

THE GREAT OUT THERE Passport Weekend, El Dorado County
April 22-24, 2022

May

Amador Four Fires Festival
May 7, 2022 – SOLD OUT!

El Dorado Hills Art, Beer & Wine Festival
May 7 & 8, 2022

Made in Tahoe Festival, Palisades Tahoe
May 28, 2022

Best of Tahoe Chefs, Ritz-Carlton
May 23, 2021***

June

Truckee Thursdays (11-week street festival)
June through August 2022

Summer Farm Tours
June through September 2022

Placer Wine & Ale Trail
Summer Passport (various venues)
June 1 thru August 31, 2022

Rocklin Brewfest
June 4, 2022

Wine on the Water, Incline Village (NV)
June 5, 2022

Tahoe City Food & Wine Classic
June 11, 2022

El Dorado County Fair
June 16-19, 2022

The Foothills Celebration, Grass Valley
June 18, 2022

Apple Hill Lavendar Blue Harvest Days, Placerville
June 18 & 19 + June 25 & 26, 2022

Placer County Fair, Roseville
June 23-26, 2022

Mother Lode Fair, Sonora
June 30 through July 3, 2022

July

Truckee Thursdays (11-week street festival)
June through August 2022

Summer Farm Tours
June through September 2022

Outstanding in the Field at Forlorn Hope Winery
July 9, 2022 – Tickets on sale March 20!

Mammoth Jazzfest Wine Walk
July 15 & 16, 2022

Motherlode Beer & Music Festival,
Historic Main Street, Placerville
July 16, 2022

Downieville Mountain Brew Fest
July 23, 2022

Taste of Gold, South Lake Tahoe
July 23, 2022

Amador County Fair
July 28-31, 2022

Mammoth Villagefest
July 29 & 30, 2022

August

Truckee Thursdays (11-week street festival)
June through August 2022

Summer Farm Tours
June through September 2022

Festival of Beers & Bluesapalooza, Mammoth Lakes
August 4-7, 2022

Nevada County Fair, Grass Valley
August 10-14, 2022

Mammoth Margarita Festival
August 12 & 13, 2022

Apple Hill Growers Farm-to-Fork Dinner, Camino
August 13, 2022

Brews, Jazz & Funk Fest,
Palisades Tahoe
August 13, 2022

Mammoth Wine Weekend
August 18-21, 2022

Angels-Murphys Rotary Club
Shrimp & Pasta Feed, Murphys Park
August 20, 2022

Mammoth Rocks Taste of the Sierra
August 26 & 27, 2022

Placer Wine & Ale Trail Winemaker &
Brewer’s BBQ, Gold Hill Gardens in Newcastle
August 27, 2022

Tahoe Brewfest
August 27, 2022

All American Rib Cookoff, Auburn
August 27, 2022

September

Summer Farm Tours
June through September 2022

Mammoth Rock N Rye Whiskey Festival
September 2-4, 2022

Mariposa County Fair
September 2-5, 2022 – Tickets on sale June 1!

Alpen Wine Fest, Palisades Tahoe
September 4, 2022

Guitar Strings vs. Chicken Wings,
Palisades Tahoe
September 9, 2022

Oktoberfest, Palisades Tahoe
September 17, 2022

Groveland 49er Festival Chili & Salsa Cook-Off
September 17, 2022

Aloha Festival, Auburn
September 17, 2022

Twain Harte a la Carte
Food, Wine & Beer Festival
September 17, 2022

Fiddletown Fiddlers’ Jam
September 17, 2022

Coulterville CoyoteFest
September 24 & 25, 2022 – NOT CONFIRMED

Mammoth Oktoberfest
CANCELLED for 2022

Barbera Festival, Plymouth
CANCELLED for 2022

Sample the Sierra, South Lake Tahoe
CANCELLED for 2022

Tahoe Chocolate & Wine Festival, Hyatt Regency
September 10, 2021***

October

June Lake Autumn Beer Festival
October 1, 2022 – TICKETS ON SALE January 1, 2022

Truckee Wine Walk
October 1, 2022

Calaveras Grape Stomp, Murphys
October 1, 2022

Loomis Eggplant Festival
October 1, 2022

Downtown Grass Valley Brewfest
October 8, 2022

Columbia State Park Harvest Festifall
October 8 & 9, 2022

Springville Apple Festival
October 15, 2022

Amador Big Crush Harvest Festival
October 1-3, 2021***

Oktoberfest on Main Street, Placerville
October 9, 2021***

November

Amador Arts Winefest, Sutter Creek
November 12, 2022

Mountain Mandarin Festival
Gold Country Fairgrounds, Auburn
November 18-20, 2022

Bubbles N Brunch, Lusso Della Terra, Fiddletown
November 21, 2021***

December

Yosemite Bracebridge Dinners
CANCELLED for 2022 due to Ahwahnee refurbishment project

Yosemite Grand Vintner’s Holidays
CANCELLED for 2022

Auburn Old Town Christmas
December 11 and December 18, 2021***

If you know of any other Sierras and Gold County festivals that we should add to this list, would you please use our Contact form to let us know? (Thanks in advance!)

Photo of Fiddletown Fiddler’s Jam Festival by Bruno Rijsman via flickr (Creative Commons).