Downtown Carpinteria was filled Saturday with live music, vendors and lots of avocado recipes during the 36th annual California Avocado Festival.
The first California Avocado Festival since before the COVID-19 pandemic will continue from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
Vendors sold deep-fried avocados, avocado leaf tea, avocado brownies, guacamole, avocado truffles and avocado gelato.
Tatum Martin, who was working at the festival with Little Dom’s selling avocado gelato, said they sold more than 40 servings of gelato in the first hour alone.
“We might run out of [gelato] by tonight,” Martin said. “We’ll see.”
Also among the vendors was the Avocado Tea Co., which was attending the festival for the first time selling tea made from avocado leaves.
The festival is the largest free music festival in California. Three stages had live music all day, and more than 60 acts were expected to play during the festival, according to organizers.
Pop punk band AceKid took the stage at 10 a.m. playing covers of early 2000 hits on the Main Stage at Linden Avenue and Ninth Street.
At the front of the festival was a tent with Carpinteria avocado history and where several local charity groups had booths about their organizations.
Connie Thompson was volunteering at the event with California Women for Agriculture. The foundation raises scholarship money for students pursuing college degrees in agriculture.
Thompson said she has been volunteering at the festival every year since it began 36 years ago.
“I remember because it was 102 degrees outside,” Thompson said.
— Noozhawk staff writer Grace Kitayama can be reached at gkitayama@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.