Events

• Installation of Manteca Chamber

of Commerce officers: Dinner in June each year. Installation and recognition of Manteca Chamber members.

• Manteca Crossroads Watermelon Street Faire

(First weekend of June)

This Northern California tradition is into its third decade. The two-day event takes place in downtown Manteca and typically draws upwards of 40,000 people. There’s music, mirth, good food, endless vendors, and lots of people watching. For more information contact the Manteca Chamber of Commerce at (209) 823-6121.

• Old-Fashioned Fourth of July:

(Independence Day, July 4)

It’s a true red, white, and blue holiday in Manteca starting with the 2,400 flags placed along major streets as part of the Manteca Chamber of Commerce’s “Flags Over Manteca” project. Then there’s a pancake breakfast followed by a parade through downtown Manteca ending with an old-fashioned fire cart being pulled by firefighters who hook it up to hydrants along the route to spray down the young and young at heart. After dusk there is a large aerial fireworks display. For more information contact the Manteca Chamber of Commerce at (209) 823-6121.

• Manteca Pumpkin Fair: (First weekend in October)

Manteca is the largest pumpkin growing region in the Western United States if not the nation. Fields around Manteca supply over 90 percent of California’s Halloween pumpkins plus tons that go to other nearby states. The Sunrise Kiwanis conducts a street fair featuring over 300 vendors with three stages of entertainment. For more information call the Manteca Sunrise Kiwanis at 800-8726546.

• Dell’Osso Farms Corn Maze:

(The month of October)

More than 140,000 people visit the Dell’Osso Corn Maze each year next door to Manteca in Lathrop off Interstate 5. It features a 40-acre corn maze either by the light of day or by the glimmer of stars and flashlights in the evening. There is also a haunted house, games, go-carts, pumpkins sales, hay rides and more. But the star attraction is the pumpkin blasters. It’s the only place on earth that you can find the answer personally to the question: How far can you lob a mini-pumpkin using a 6-foot barrel with

A Manteca Fourth of July tradition: Kids — young and old — cooling down in a spray from fire hoses at the tail end of the Independence Day parade.

sights? The answer is about 200 yards. Farmer Ron Dell’Osso has designed and had six “pumpkin blasters” welded from steel. For $5, you get a bucket of ammo — 12 mini-pumpkins to be exact — that you can fire away at targets that include the standard open mouths on Halloween characters and hanging tires. For more information on the Dell’Osso Farms Corn Maze go to www.pumpkinmaze.com.

• Twilight Christmas Parade (Second Saturday in December)

For more than 40 years, Manteca has conducted a twilight Christmas parade through downtown. There will be lots of area to watch the parade either from your vehicle or outside. Manteca has the largest Lighted Parade in the area with more than 120 entries. For more information, call the Manteca Chamber of Commerce at (209) 823-6121.

• Christmas in the Promenade

(First weekend in December)

The event will be held at the Promenade Shopping Center at Orchard Valley on Saturday and Sunday, December 4th and 5th. We will have many activities for the kids, such as kiddy rides, a petting zoo, pony rides and pictures with Santa. There will also be free children’s arts & crafts activities. We have lots of craft and vendor booths signed up, plus many food trucks and more. Come out and do your early Christmas shopping while the kids are entertained.