The almond blossom festival has been a tradition that the little town of Ripon has
grown to love and enjoy together. There’s the annual parade on Saturday morning and
the carnival goes from Thursday to Sunday. It is a time where the entire town,
regardless of age or school or anything else, can get together.
However, the festival we experience now is not what it has always been. There
have been a number of changes in the past few generations.
“The most significant change, to me, didn’t occur until about 12 years ago,”
english teacher Mrs. Burton said, “That’s when the decision was made to move the
carnival and the vendors out to Mistlin park”.
Originally, the carnival was downtown, and was located at the community center.
“There are many of us who grew up in Ripon and remember Almond Blossom
clear back to the 60s that are still upset about that,” Burton said.
The main reason that the carnival was changed was because of safety concerns.
The Ripon Chamber of Commerce and the Ripon Police Department decided to move it.
“Think of the busiest days at the carnival, and if all those people were parked on
streets in Ripon, how awful that would be with the amount of cars,” teacher Mrs.
Pendleton said.
Even though the problem of parking and causing problems downtown had been
fixed when the carnival was moved, having it at Mistlin takes away from the small town
feel that the festival had once before.
“Yeah, parking was crazy, but people would open up their homes, had food and
refreshments in their front yards, people wandering around downtown,” Mrs. Burton
said, “the churches and businesses were open. There were vendors on Main Street and
the community center.”
Much of downtown Ripon was buzzing with activities during this time of the year.
“What we call ‘Historical Ripon’ now was a walking area where you could feel that
downtown atmosphere,” Burton said.
Not only has the carnival changed itself, but some parts of the parade have as
well.
“By where Dollar Tree is now, they would have these big bleachers set up and
people from Japan would come because they were learning about almonds. Miss Japan
was in our parade. It was always a big deal,” Pendleton said.
The route of the parade was also different. It used to end on Main Street, so it
goes the opposite direction now.
