Go like a pro: Your guide to attending Sacramento’s Farm-to-Fork Street Festival

Sacramento’s Farm-to-Fork Street Festival is just around the corner, and for many of us, it will be one of the first major events featuring excited crowds of people since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

But if you’re having trouble remembering how to prepare and navigate such events, don’t worry: The Sacramento Bee rounded up all the rules you need to follow and compiled tips for a successful festival experience. Here’s how to hit the Sept. 17 and 18 street festival on the Capitol Mall like a pro.

Time, date, transportation

The festival on the Capitol Mall starts at 4 p.m. Sept. 17 and closes at 9 p.m.. The second day of festivities commences the following day at 11 a.m., and the festival concludes at 9 p.m.

The festival is free, but there will be two entrances where guests will attest to their COVID-19 vaccination or negative test status. Event organizers told The Bee lines may form due to the attestation requirement, but they expect those lines to move quickly. Those entrances are situated at Fourth Street south and Fifth Street north onto the Capitol Mall, according to Visit Sacramento.

If you’re driving to the festival, Visit Sacramento recommends using the city of Sacramento’s SacPark system to reserve a spot. For bikers, the Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates will be offering a free bike valet at the event.

You can also ride SacRT – light rail, buses, and SmaRT Ride – to the festival for free by presenting a free ride flyer beginning Friday at 2 p.m. and Saturday at 9 a.m. SacRT recommends passengers coming from Citrus Heights/Roseville on the blue line hop off the train at the Seventh and Capitol Station and those taking the blue or gold lines from Sacramento/Elk Grove and Folsom/Rancho Cordova exit at the Eighth and Capitol station. The deal works through the end of service on both days.

For those coming from out of town, Amtrak is also currently offering a Capitol Corridor deal allowing one full-fare paying customer to bring five companions along for $5 on weekends through Sept. 19.

What to bring and what to leave at home

While Visit Sacramento is encouraging everyone to bring and wear face masks to the festival, here’s a list of prohibited items to leave at home:

• Outside alcohol
• Glass containers
• Cans
• Weapons (i.e. knives, pepper spray, stun-guns, any concealed weapons, firearms, etc.)
• Illegal drugs
• Fireworks, smoke bombs, etc.
• Unapproved pamphlets, handouts, advertisements, etc.
• Other items as determined by facility management
• You can bring outside water bottles, and there are no bag restrictions, though security will check bags upon arrival.

Pets are also allowed, but Visit Sacramento encourages pet owners to be careful, given that high temperatures lead to hot pavement and some pets aren’t crowd-friendly. You should also bring both cash and cards if possible: bars at the festival will be card-only. But food trucks and vendors will be setting their own rules when it comes to cash versus card.

Where to find the necessities

New this year at the festival will be a whole block dedicated to seating so that attendants can spread out and feel comfortable taking off masks to eat, Mike Testa, president and chief executive of Visit Sacramento, said. Testa said seating will be located on the block between Sixth and Seventh streets.

There will also be large banks of bathrooms in three to four strategic locations on the mall. Bathrooms will not be hard to find when you need one, Testa affirmed.

This year, because of COVID, there will not be water bottle refill stations. Visitors to the festival are welcome to bring their own water, but they won’t be able to refill.

The festival is also set up to look kind of like a neighborhood, according to Kari Miskit, Visit Sacramento’s chief communications officer.

“We have some directional signage throughout the event so we can limit paper waste, so that it’s sort of like you’re walking your own neighborhood,” Miskit said. There will be kiosks, kind of like those found in shopping malls, at strategic locations as well.

There will also be information desks, with a central hub for information that can also be used as a reunification point if there’s ever a child separated from a parent, according to Miskit. The reunification point will be at Capitol Mall and Fifth Street, which is the event command center. Volunteers will be walking through the event to provide assistance as well.

This story was originally published September 10, 2021 at 5:00 AM.