Arroyo Grande Valley
83rd Annual Harvest
Festival & Parade
ENTERTAINMENT
Here's a peek at some of this year's entertainment! Check out all the fun we're going to have on Friday and Saturday!
This year we have a great lineup of Entertainment for you with some of your old favorites and some new exciting venues too!
We also have a variety of displays and events, something for everyone in the family.
FRIDAY
 4:00 - 6:00 Rotary Fish FryCome join us Friday, September 23, 2022 from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM at the Harvest Festival by the Centennial Park Gazebo in Olohan Alley. Enjoy a great traditional meal while contributing to our Rotary Youth Scholarships. To buy tickets, email laragoldenrotary@gmail.com or ask your favorite Rotarian! |  6:00 pm Opening CeremoniesFlag Raising Ceremonies and Introductions at Centennial Park Gazebo |  6:00 pm Opening CeremoniesJoin the The Central Coast Chordsmen who will sing the National Anthem. They are a Chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society and its Far Western District and through the medium of four-part barbershop A Capella harmony, we maintain and sustain supportive services for a local community of lifelong singers as a core community asset. The chorus elevate artistic and leadership skills through education and best singing and performance practices in brilliant, uplifting, 4-part Barbershop Harmony! |
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 6:00 pm - Encanto Movie Night6:00 pm Concessions open and movie starts at 7:30 pm. Join us at Heritage Square Park for the Outdoor Movie Night sponsored by AG Recreation Services. Bring your low back chairs, blankets and enjoy. Food and snacks available for purchase. |  5:00 - 8:30 pm - Unfinished Business at Centennial ParkBased in San Luis Obispo County and performing all over the Central Coast since 2004, Unfinished Business specializes in the best and most popular music of all time: 1960s rock & roll and soul. Think Beatles, Rolling Stones, British Invasion, The Beach Boys, The Doors, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Santana, The Monkees, and Motown and Memphis soul. It's all high energy dance music and great ballads. |  4:00 - 9:00 pm - The Festival is openEnjoy Local Vendors and Non-Profits. Crafts, Information, Displays and Games in Oolohan Alley. |
SATURDAY
 8:00 - 10:00 amPancake Breakfast provided by the Veterans of Foreign Affairs (VFW Post 10978 Nipomo) at Oolohan Alley. |  10:00 - 11:30 am83rd Annual Harvest Festival Parade: Come enjoy and sit anywhere throughout the Village! |  11:00 am - 4:00 pmEnjoy Local Vendors and Non-Profits. Crafts, Information, Displays and Games in Oolohan Alley. |
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 12:00 - 4:00 pm - Agriculture PavilionAG Pavilion: Pet animals, buy vegetables, enjoy music, drive tractors and more. |  1st Annual Cornhole Tournament1st Annual Cornhole Tournament Competitive and Social Divisions Details. Competitive Division will sign up through the sponsor’s online app. Top 3 teams win prize money for each division. Live Music by Cuesta Ridge! McLintocks food and beverages available. Great games. Great people. Great Fun! Click on link |  12:00 pm Kick off of AG History PresentationsSee schedule below |
 1:30 Registration Begins - Whiskerino ContestCompetition for the the best beards and mustaches in various categories. Presented by the Hair Saloon. Prizes from Rooster Creek Tavern. Located at Centennial Park |  3:30 pm Ballooney the Clown at Heritage Square ParkCome enjoy local favorite, Ballooney the Clown at Heritage Square Park. |  12:00 - 3:30 Critical Mass Band in Centennial SquareCritical Mass started out in 2005 as a collection of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power employees playing music for a “Diversity Day” event at the plant. They provide a “diverse” mix of music for all ages to enjoy. We also feature keyboards, rhythm guitar, and a soulful trombonist. |
 12:00 pm - Dog Agility at Heritage Square ParkSanta Lucia Open Dog Obedience Group, SLODOG, is a local dog club for people and their best friends. Club members enjoy training and competing as well as taking walks or hikes together. SLODOG also has a sub group of Therapy Dog teams who visit seniors, college students and local schools. There are about 80 members, the club has been around more than 25 years. Members gather for practices and canine social events. |  1:00 SOPA at Heritage Square Park |  12:00 - 3:00. Cuesta Ridge Band at McKlintock's Parking LotCuesta Ridge is an authentic, Central Coast, homegrown band. They specialize in the genres of country, bluegrass and Americana |
 2:00 - Flex Performing Arts with Coastal Arts Performing Arts at Heritage Bandstand |  2:00 Coastal Performing Arts Foundation alongside of Flex |  3:00pm - Magician Jim Wilson at Heritage Band StandMagician Jim Wilson presents a "fun filled" magic show that uses volunteers of all ages. He even incorporates background music to make parts of the show more theatrical. His entertainment career began in college by learning how to juggle with rocks while on a backpacking trip. After forming the A-1 Talent Company he progressed from doing juggling shows to performing magic shows and now entertains at school assemblies, libraries, company picnics and even backyard birthday parties |
 2:00 pm Pie Eating Contest in Oolohan AlleyPie Eating Contest in Olohan Alley |  3:30 pm - Come dance & Zumba with HeidyDance and enjoy the day with Heidy at Heritage Square Park. |  5:00 pm - Camp Arroyo Grande Dinner Dance |
 5 - 10 pm Parents Night Out 2022Attend the Dance and drop your kiddos off for a fun and entertaining night of fun with Miss Carrie. |
Booths & Games
9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Come enjoy fun carnival games, shopping booths, food booths and so much more located in Olohan Alley.
10 am Balooney the Clown
The Cuest Ridge Band will perform. Local favorites that specialize in bluegrass, Americana, and country.
SLO County Stumblers
11:30 - 3:30 pm
AG Pavilion
The Cuest Ridge Band will perform. Local favorites that specialize in bluegrass, Americana, and country.
SOPA Performance
1:00 pm
Centennial Park
The studio of performing arts has been a staple in our community for over 20 years. They provide opportunities for all performing artists including dance , drama , music , competitive dance , and many stage performances throughout the year . Staring at age 2-adult , there’s a little something for everyone !
HERITAGE SQUARE PARK/ ROTARY BANDSTAND ENTERTAINMENT
Friday
6:30 pm - Free Movie Night. Disney's Encanto. Movie starts at 7:30 pm
Saturday
12:30 pm - Doggie Agility with SLODOG
1:00 pm - Studio of Performing Arts
2:00 pm - FLEX Performing Arts (dance) with Coastal Performing Arts
Foundation (dance and theater)
3:00 pm - Magician Jim Wilson
3:30 pm - Kiddie Parade with Ballooney the Clown
IOOF Hall History Presentations
Noon: "Arroyo Grande's Wild West”
by Jim Gregory, President, South County Historical Society
Tombstone and Dodge City are more famous, but Arroyo Grande has a Wild West to rival theirs. In 1848, town founder Francis Branch and his friend John Price discovered the victims of California’s first mass murder. Branch’s son-in-law, county schools superintendent David Newsom, for whom Newsom Canyon is named, discovered on an 1850s ride south to Santa Barbara that skeletal remains appeared then about as often as Andersen’s Pea Soup billboards do today. Lopez Canyon was rife with property disputes: in 1886, bitterness between two families resulted in murder and a double lynching at the foot of Crown Hill. A decade later, a body found in a vacant lot near The Palace, a San Luis Obispo house of ill repute, was tied to a Lopez Canyon feud, as well. Arroyo Grande’s first school, on Nevada Street, had to be moved when a gunfight broke out at the nearby Ryan Hotel stables, and a town constable, Henry Lewellyn, was shot dead in the doorway of the Capitol Saloon on Branch Street in 1904. Move over, Tombstone.
1 p.m.: Cowboy Poetry
by Bob Perrault and Friends
Join Local Cowboy Poet Bob Perrault and his friends for an hour of Cowboy
Poetry at 1: Pm in the I.O O. F Hall, on September 24 th as a part of the Harvest
Festival. Bob will provide stories and tales from a lifetime of living close to his
horse and experiencing western life. Some folks may recall Bob for his former
“day Job” as the City Manager for Grover Beach, but Bob was raised close by
Ventura County he spent his formative years chasing critters on the ranches and
farms. Since that time, he has stayed true to his western roots.
2pm: History Videos:
Video Entitled: How did Arroyo Grande wind up with nearly sixty Civil War veterans? The connection between these settlers and the Pacific Coast Railroad.
Video Entitled: What three waves of immigration marked the Arroyo Grande Valley in the early 20th century? The local impact of the Depression and New Deal.
2 p.m.:The Pacific Coast Railway:
Why a Railroad to the Coast including the Arroyo Grande Valley
by Andrew Merriam, Board Member of the San Luis Obispo Railroad Museum
The timing of this year’s Harvest Festival is just three months prior to the 150th anniversary of the incorporation of San Luis Obispo’s first railroad. A railroad that stopped in Arroyo Grande at the old Loomis warehouse. What was to become the narrow-gauge Pacific Coast Railway was incorporated in 1872 by John Harford to transport the agricultural products out and bring manufactured goods in to the then isolated San Luis Obispo and northern Santa Barbara Counties. Passengers and freight were boarded on ships at Avila to connect to the California coast from Seattle to San Diego. Andrew Merriam, a local resident of SLO for 65 years and a board member of the San Luis Obispo Railroad Museum, will offer the history of this very interesting and very local railroad which connected our area to the rest of California prior to highways, street paving and motorized vehicles
3 p.m.: "World War II Arroyo Grande"
by Jim Gregory, President, South County Historical Society
The war’s impact on our town, population 1,090 in the 1940 census,
was immediate. Two Arroyo Grande sailors were killed on battleship
Arizona on December 7. What followed were nearly four years of
deprivation and commitment at home—and even greater commitment
from those in uniform: The grocer’s son who brought his crippled B-17 home from a mission over Berlin; the fireman who fought in Easy Company, the “Band of Brothers;” the woman Marine who became, for a day, the president’s chauffeur; the fighting prowess of Filipino-Americans, whose first regiment was formed at Camp San Luis Obispo; the tragic frequency of air crashes from training flights out of bases in Santa Maria; perhaps the war’s central tragedy, the enforcement of Executive Order 9066, which ironically served to reveal the dignity—and loyalty-- of Japanese-Americans and the heroism of their sons who volunteered to fight.
Photo of Arroyo Grande looking south toward Santa Maria taken about 1906. The PCRY mainline is to the left with a boxcar on the tracks close to the warehouse/station which was owned in later years by the Loomis family.
