Every November, the weekend before Thanksgiving, thousands of Sacramento-area residents make the 30-minute drive to Roseville for the one event that smells like the actual season: thousands of pounds of fresh Placer County mandarins, rows of artisan vendors, and live music echoing across The Grounds. The Mountain Mandarin Festival is not a generic fall fair. It is a celebration of a real local crop that has been grown in the Sierra Nevada foothills since the 1800s, and the 33rd annual edition runs November 20 through 22, 2026.
What the Mountain Mandarin Festival Is
The festival traces its roots to a handful of Placer County foothill growers who wanted to showcase the region’s distinctive mandarin orange crop. Placer County’s mild foothills climate — warm days, cool nights — produces mandarins with a flavor and sweetness that flat-valley fruit rarely matches. For decades the event was held in Newcastle and then Auburn, but it outgrew those venues. It now runs at The Grounds in Roseville, a large event complex with better parking and room for the 200-plus vendors and crowds that show up each year.
The event is organized by the Mountain Mandarin Education Foundation, a nonprofit whose goal is to keep Placer County’s mandarin growers visible and economically viable. That mission gives the festival its anchor: more than 15 local growers set up stands where visitors can buy fresh, hand-picked mandarins directly. Some growers sell gift boxes. Others offer samples. Come early — the fruit genuinely does sell out as the weekend goes on.
What to Expect Inside
Beyond the fruit, the festival is a full outdoor fair. There are more than 200 vendors across artisan crafts, specialty foods, and mandarin-themed gift items. Food vendors serve mandarin-inspired dishes — pulled pork with mandarin BBQ sauce, mandarin gelato, chocolate-covered fresh mandarins, and the like — alongside standard fair food. There is a mandarin cocktail bar for adults. A Kids Zone keeps younger visitors busy. Multiple stages run live music and entertainment throughout the weekend, plus cooking demonstrations and a Best Mandarin Contest that draws serious competition from local growers.
Plan for a few hours minimum. The venue is large, the vendor rows are long, and Saturday morning is the highest-traffic window. If crowds aren’t your thing, Friday afternoon is noticeably quieter and tickets are cheaper.
The Details
- Dates: Friday, November 20 through Sunday, November 22, 2026
- Hours: Friday 10 a.m.–5 p.m. | Saturday 9 a.m.–5 p.m. | Sunday 10 a.m.–4 p.m.
- Location: The Grounds, 700 Event Center Dr., Roseville, CA 95678
- Single-day admission: General $14 | Senior (60+) $10 | Junior (11–17) $8 | Children 10 and under free | Friday Special $8 (all ages 11+)
- Weekend pass (all 3 days): General $29 | Senior $21 | Junior $17
- Parking: $12 per vehicle purchased online in advance; $15 at the gate day-of
- Tickets: Available online through the official site at mandarinfestival.com
- Rain or shine: The festival runs regardless of weather
- Pets: Not allowed. Only task-trained service dogs are permitted
- Tip: Buy parking in advance — it saves $3 and you’ll avoid the line
- Tip: Bring a layer. The Grounds sits in the foothills edge of Roseville, and late November mornings are cold
- Tip: Arrive by 10 a.m. Saturday if getting mandarins from a specific grower is the priority — popular booths sell out by early afternoon
Getting There from Sacramento
The Grounds is about 25 minutes from downtown Sacramento on I-80 East. Take the Eureka Road exit and follow the signs. GPS pulls up 700 Event Center Dr., Roseville, CA 95678 accurately. The parking lot is on-site and large. On Saturday, especially midday, the lot fills up — arriving before 10 a.m. avoids the worst of it.
It pairs naturally with a stop at nearby Denio’s Farmers Market (open Saturdays and Sundays year-round) or a walk around Roseville’s downtown before heading back. If you’re planning Thanksgiving week activities, it slots in cleanly as a pre-holiday outing — it’s the last major outdoor event in the Sacramento area before the holiday season fully kicks into gear.
For more Sacramento-area fall outings and upcoming seasonal events, see the Apple Hill 2026 day trip guide and the Sacramento Holiday Markets 2026 guide. If you’re running the Sacramento area Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning, the mandarin festival is a natural warm-up to the holiday week.
Bottom Line
The Mountain Mandarin Festival is the kind of regional event that Sacramento families tend to put on the annual calendar and keep there. It’s close, it’s free for kids, it’s specific to this corner of California in a way nothing else in November is, and the fruit is genuinely worth it. The 33rd annual edition runs November 20–22, 2026, at The Grounds in Roseville. Weekend passes start at $29 for adults; parking is $12 if you buy it in advance online at mandarinfestival.com.
