With six months to go until the next Almond Festival, the Esparto Regional Chamber of Commerce has begun planning and organizing the iconic festival to ensure things run smoothly.

“We’re ahead of the game this year,” Chamber President Stephen Gordon emphasized.

In these early stages of planning, Gordon said the chamber hopes to receive community input and suggestions to ensure everyone feels included in the process.

“The Almond Festival means something to everyone within our community,” he stressed. “At the end of the day, we encourage people to bring those big ideas to the table.”

Additionally, he thanked the community members and participating businesses that made the festival possible.

“We don’t get a chance to see everyone and them for being a part of the Almond Festival,” he added. “We’re not trying to control everything, we’re trying to make the Almond Festival the best we can for everyone up and down the valley.”

Gordon has been critical in the development of a community-focused Saturday event that started four years ago. Before then, the festival was only celebrated on Sunday, although he assured Sunday is still the main event.

In regards to Saturday, he looks forward to welcoming more “unique” food vendors as requested by some community members and to modify kids events to make them more appealing.

“We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel,” he assured. “It took us almost four years to develop the two days that it is now. Saturday took a long time to develop and it started off with three or four vendors. Now it’s well over 25.”

Additionally, several nonprofits that serve the Capay Valley attend the event to connect with community members who might benefit from their resources.

An estimated 5,000 to 10,000 attended this year’s festival in late February.

“The Almond Festival comes around and they’re… getting out of here because they don’t want to deal with the sounds, the traffic and the congestion,” Laura Gordon, Stephen’s mom and a key organizer for the festival, said following the festival. “But as a business owner and as a chamber of commerce member, we rely on this day of the year to establish our name and for sales. It’s important.”

Edgar Gandara works in the legal issues department for the Consulate General of Mexico and was one of two consulate representatives running a booth during this year’s festival.

“We came to have a table with information of all the services the consulate offers,” Gandara said in Spanish. “The basic stuff is like passports and birth certificates, but we also want to offer all of our other services like legal services.”

He noted that the consulate found out about the event earlier this year and they decided to attend because of the number of immigrant farmworkers who live or work in the valley who might benefit from their services.

“There are a lot of Mexican nationals who come to this area with a work visa and we make sure that they are being treated with dignity and that they are aware of the services we have to offer them,” Gandara highlighted.

To learn more about the services the consulate offers, visit consulmex.sre.gob.mx/sacramento/index.php.

Michale Molina, owner of El Toro Meat Market & Taqueria, said he’s been happy with the increase in weekend business over the last several festivals and credited it largely to the addition of the Saturday event in the park.

“The chamber of commerce has done a really good job of putting this together, it was never a two-day event,” Molina emphasized. “There’s a lot of local vendors out there and it’s really nice to see that they get supported and we always appreciate it.”

Molina’s business is located at 16939 Yolo Ave. across the street from Esparto Park, where the Saturday event is held, so his business attracts many event-goers looking for authentic Mexican tacos or refreshments.

He also highlighted the number of people who make the long trip to the multiple stops the festival has to offer.

“Not just Esparto, but you got things all the day up the valley in Guinda, Rumsey, and they do a good job of providing a lot of stops and getting people out,” Molina remarked.

A short drive up State Route 16 from the park is Road Trip Bar & Grill, which long-time staff member Christopher Elliott said has made the festival a weekend-long festivity for as long as he can remember.

“We’ve always done it on Saturdays and Sundays and this is probably the busiest I’ve ever seen it on a Saturday, so it’s really nice,” Elliott stressed.

He said he’s worked during every festival at the bar and grill — located at 24989 Hwy. 16 in Capay — since 2010 and Saturdays were usually slow, but the increase in popularity of the chamber’s Saturday festivities are likely contributing to the bar’s increase in business.

“The Almond Festival has been going on for well over 100 years,” Elliott stressed. “It’s a great time if people want to come out and visit a small town and get kind of out of their little city lives, or even if they are from another small town, come check us out. We’re basically the new Napa Valley is what I like to say.”

The festivities continued Sunday with activities, farm tours, book sales, live music shows, a petting zoo, art show and more available at several stops from Esparto to Rumsey. The roads were filled with hundreds of motorists and motorcyclists eager to support the valley’s business community.