Arabian Fair and Fantasy : A Date With the Indio Festival Means Camel Races, Pageantry, Parades and a Pancake Breakfast

There are hundreds of county fairs across the nation, but none is quite like the annual exposition that began Friday in Indio.

The main attractions at Riverside County’s National Date Festival are ostrich and camel races, followed by the showy musical pageant that’s billed as an “Arabian Nights Fantasy.” Even the fairground is one of a kind, with oases of palm trees and Moorish-style buildings decked out with domes, minarets and keyhole-shaped doorways.

This is the 43rd consecutive Date Festival, which now has a 10-day run and draws more than a quarter-million visitors.

Gates open daily at 10 a.m. (through Feb. 26) and most fair-goers arrive in time for the afternoon ostrich and camel races. Never mind that these dromedaries and long-necked birds are shipped in from Kansas instead of the Sahara and South Africa; they put on a hilarious show.

10 Degrees Below Zero in Kansas

“My camels and ostriches are looking forward to the warm weather in California, and so am I,” Joe Hedrick said in a telephone interview a week before the festival opened. He was speaking from Hedrick’s Exotic Animal Farm in central Kansas, where the temperature was 10 degrees below zero.

This is Hedrick’s fourth year as organizer of the fair’s novel races. His one-hour shows begin with Roman-style chariots pulled by unpredictable ostriches. Not all the drivers are gladiators; look for Bugs Bunny and even a California Raisin character. Jockeys later mount the ostriches for “feather-back” races around the arena.

Riders in Arabian costumes also rock around the course on the humps of camels, who seem to have minds of their own once they leave the starting gates. In between races, a llama, zebra and an Arabian horse show some tricks they’ve been taught by Hedrick and his animal trainers.

“I bring 90 or so exotic and domestic animals to the festival,” Hedrick said. “Kids really go for the kangaroo in the fair’s petting zoo.” He also offers camel and elephant rides.

Some of Hedrick’s animals will be in the date festival parade along Indio’s streets Monday morning, and every night one of his elephants, a llama, three camels and an Arabian horse appear on stage in the pageant.

That hourlong musical is another favorite of festival visitors, who watch the fairy tale performed on an outdoor stage built to resemble a marketplace in old Baghdad. More than 75 area residents are in the cast and choir, including Gwen Harlowe, a convalescent-home social director. She’s been part of the show for 29 years and now is a soloist who plays a leading role as the queen, Calipha Nuzhet al Fuad.

‘Authentic Arabian Dances’

“Years ago we had authentic Arabian dances,” Harlowe says, “but the audience got restless, so now the production has become more flamboyant.”

There is plenty of action in this year’s tale. It’s about a pretender trying to take over the throne by marrying Princess Shalimar, who’s in love with a slave. A smoke bomb announces the appearance of the great genie, and he tips the princess off that the slave is really Aladdin, the true prince.

“You’ll never see anything like this on the stage in Los Angeles,” says Harlowe, who adds that the “Arabian Nights Fantasy” draws an audience of 6,000 almost every night.

Crowds also gather to see the professional entertainers, who appear twice daily on the Arabian Nights stage.

Today’s headliner is Cristy Lane, whose gospel album, “One Day at a Time,” had more than 4 million sales. In 1979, she was named the Academy of Country Music’s top new female artist of the year, and has since recorded 20 gold and platinum albums.

Sunday’s stage show is billed as a Fiestacade, featuring mariachis, folkloric dancers and comic Jose Gonzalez Gonzalez, who plays bottles and frying pans while dancing, singing and telling jokes.

The All-American Boys Chorus is scheduled for Monday, and on Tuesday and Wednesday, Jerry Jeff Walker, who wrote “Mr. Bojangles,” presents his one-man show of songs and stories.

“The Rajun’ Cajun,” as songwriter Doug Kershaw is known, takes the spotlight Thursday and Friday. He can play 29 different instruments, including the violin, an audience favorite. At times, the Rajun’ Cajun fiddles so hard that the hairs of his bow begin smoking and then disintegrate. (Luckily, there’s always an extra supply of bows on stage.)

Johnny Lee to Perform

Next Saturday, country singer Johnny Lee, who gained notoriety from the movie “Urban Cowboy,” will perform hits from his best-selling albums, including “Looking for Love.”

Visitors will be treated to other entertainment as they wander the fairground. Returning this year is the All-American High Diving Team, which climaxes its spectacular show with an 85-foot dive into a pool that’s only 9 feet deep.

Also booked for the run of the festival are the Shanachie folk singers, puppeteer Freddie Prez, the Mitchell Marionettes, magician Al Lampkin, Scottish singer Alex Beaton and Ted the blacksmith.

Another attraction is a team of Clydesdale horses that pull their Budweiser beer wagon around the fairground and are on exhibit daily.

As at some county fairs, horse racing with parimutuel betting is an attraction at the date festival--but only on a television screen. This year, a sports center was opened at the fairground with satellite wagering on races that are run at Santa Anita and Los Alamitos.

More traditional are the thrill rides and games of chance along the fair’s colorful carnival midway.

At the show barn, proud members of 4-H and Future Farmers of America display their prize livestock and blue ribbons. In another building, home-baked pies and handmade quilts are admired at the Home Arts Show, while floral arrangements attract attention at the Flower and Garden Show.

Painters and Shutterbugs

The creations of local painters and shutterbugs are featured in the Fine Art and Photographic exhibitions. Master wood carvers give demonstrations in another hall, which also hosts the Gem and Mineral Show, and there are plenty of stands selling souvenirs and cotton candy.

Visitors who plan their outing for the Monday holiday should arrive in Indio in time for the festival’s street parade. There will be marching bands, drum majors and majorettes, color squads, drill teams, clowns, antique autos, equestrian groups and floats decorated with an Arabian Nights theme.

There’s a pancake breakfast in Miles Avenue City Park from 6 a.m. until the parade’s kickoff time at 10 a.m. Besides all-you-can-eat pancakes served by the Coachella Valley Lions Club, the menu includes grilled ham, scrambled eggs, orange juice and coffee or milk. Adults pay $3.50, children $2.

Dates--more than 100 types--are displayed at the fair in the Taj Mahal building. A date-recipe contest is part of the Home Arts Show, and on Tuesday, judges will be tasting date cookies, cakes, breads, pies, puddings, sauces and other date concoctions. Visitors shouldn’t leave the festival without sipping a date milk shake at one of the refreshment stands.

Second Only to Iraq

More dates are grown in California than anywhere else in the world except for Iraq, and the Coachella Valley produces 95% of all dates harvested in the United States. The 1987 crop and its byproducts had a value of more than $37 million. No wonder that tasty fruit gets top billing at the Riverside County Fair.

Gates and buildings at the National Date Festival are open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day through Feb. 26; the midway operates until midnight. Admission is $4, children ages 5-11 pay $2; free to children 4 and younger. Friday admission for children 11 and younger is free, when accompanied by an adult; seniors 62 and older can enter for $3.50 on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Included in the gate admission are the Arabian Nights Fantasy pageant, presented nightly at 6:45 p.m., and all shows by the professional entertainers, who appear twice daily at 2:30 and 8 p.m. Admission to camel and ostrich races, at 1 and 3:30 p.m. daily, is $1 per person.

Entry is $1 per adult for satellite wagering on thoroughbred races from Santa Anita (Wednesday-Sunday afternoon) and harness races from Los Alamitos (Tuesday-Saturday evening).

The fairground covers 110 acres in downtown Indio and is bordered by California 111, Arabia and Oasis streets and Doctor Carreon Boulevard (formerly 47th Avenue). Festival parking is $2 just south of the boulevard. From Los Angeles, take Interstate 10 east about 140 miles to Indio. Exit Indio Boulevard to Clinton Street, turn right. Clinton turns into Dr. Carreon Boulevard.

For overnight lodging, contact the Indio Chamber of Commerce: (619) 347-0676. Fair information: (619) 342-8247.