When autumn arrives and the summer beach crowds diminish, visitors to San Diego can relish in the region’s sunny mild weather and enjoy a number of fun-filled fall activities to enhance their vacation getaway. During San Diego’s shoulder season, visitors can find a variety of annual festivals and fairs, haunting Halloween celebrations and diverse cultural entertainment.

FAIRS, FESTIVALS AND PARADES

• The 11th annual Gaslamp Quarter Fall Back Festival brings alive the history and culture of downtown San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter. The event occurs 11:00 am – 4:00 pm on Island Avenue between Fourth and Fifth Street and features food, live music, ballet folklorico, Native American dancing, spaghetti and pie eating contests, children’s arts and crafts and more. Dates TBD.

FOODIES FESTS

• The 17th Annual San Diego Festival of Beer goes on tap Sept. 9 in downtown San Diego. Seventy-five local brewers will be in attendance, providing samples and tastings of their signature and award-winning beers. The event will also feature live music, vendors, food booths and more.
• San Diego’s culinary community joins forces during Sept. 18 – 23 for San Diego Restaurant Week. Approximately 180 of the region’s top restaurants offer prix-fixe, three-course dinner menus, at just $20, $30 or $40 per person. Visitors can sample the signature cuisine and sophisticated style that makes San Diego’s dining scene one of the region’s top attractions.
• During Nov. 4 – 13, hundreds of beer-centric events will take place during San Diego Beer Week, a countywide festival that highlights San Diego’s award-winning craft beer, breweries and pubs; event dates, times and locations vary throughout the week.
• The San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival, the region’s largest wine and culinary event, takes place Nov. 16 – 20 at venues throughout downtown San Diego. The festival includes gourmet food, celebrity chefs, wine tastings, cooking demonstrations and more.

ART & SOL

• Art San Diego’s Contemporary Art Fair, Sept. 1 – 4 at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront showcases nearly 70 contemporary art galleries, exhibitions by local and international artists, food and wine events and interactive art labs around the city.
• The San Diego International Film Festival returns Sept. 28 – Oct. 2 to downtown’s Gaslamp Quarter with a full slate of films showcasing the best in American and International full-length features, documentaries and shorts. Additional activities include Q&A sessions with the directors, workshops, panel discussions, guest appearances by film and video artists and more.
• Southern California's largest free two-day musical festival, the 30th Annual Adams Avenue Street Fair returns Sept. 24 – 25 to Normal Heights with three beer gardens, six stages and more than 70 musical acts; it also features arts and crafts, carnival rides, food vendor booths and street performances. Performing rock, country, folk, TexMex and more, the fair offers something for everyone.
• Jean Isaacs San Diego Dance Theater and the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System present the 13th Annual Trolley Dances, Sept. 24 – 25 and Oct. 1 – 2. Guests riding the San Diego Trolley are treated to site-specific choreographed dance performances on and off the trolley at unexpected locations in downtown San Diego from One American Plaza to the Hilton San Diego Bayfront hotel. Dances are performed on the fly, taking inspiration from the surroundings and energy at each stop.
• On Oct. 1 – 2, the Old Town San Diego Art Festival features more than four dozen contemporary artists, craftsman, fashion and home décor artisans, plus wine tastings, international food sampling and live music.
• During Oct. 20 – 28, the 12th Annual San Diego Asian Film Festival presents films, videos and workshops that celebrate the work of Asian artists from around the world. Screenings are held at the UltraStar Mission Valley Cinema in Hazard Center and showcase feature films, shorts and animation.
• Showcasing more than 25 bands from throughout the United States and Canada, the 32nd Annual San Diego Thanksgiving Dixieland Jazz Festival, held Nov. 23 – 27 at the Town & Country Resort in Mission Valley, presents nationally acclaimed musical performances to kick-off the holiday season.

CULTURAL EVENTS

• Visitors can become a part of history and celebrate the discovery of California during the 48th Annual Cabrillo Festival. Guests enjoy cultural festivities, educational activities, music, food, dancing and a reenactment of the landing by explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo on the shores of San Diego Bay in 1542. Dates TBD.
• The 16th Annual Pacific Islander Festival, Sept. 24 – 25, is a free event that showcases the cultures and customs of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia with continuous entertainment throughout the weekend. Held at Mission Bay’s Ski Beach, the event also features food, music and specialty crafts unique to each culture.
• Little Italy in downtown San Diego presents the 17th Annual Little Italy Festa on Oct. 9. A grand celebration of Italian culture, this traditional street festival offers music, fine foods, specialty crafts and Gesso Italiano, a classic Italian street chalk painting exhibition.
• Visitors can explore the Mexican traditions of the Day of the Dead in Old Town San Diego, where more than 25 museums, restaurants and shops participate in a community-wide celebration of Dia de los Muertos on Oct. 30, creating traditional Mexican altars and offerings to departed loved ones. A candlelight procession from the Whaley House to El Campo Santo cemetery to make offerings to Old Town's earliest families at their gravesites tops off the unique cultural experience.

HALLOWEEN HAUNTS

• Halloween makes a splash at SeaWorld San Diego during its Halloween Spooktacular at SeaWorld celebration. This family friendly program features trick-or-treat stations, a Sesame Street-themed Halloween show, special Halloween-themed sea lion show and interactive Halloween characters along the pathways of the park. The event takes place every weekend in October.
• Old Town’s Most Haunted offers nightly walking tours of Old Town San Diego’s original downtown, led by a real ghost hunter. Offered Thurs. – Sun. year-round, the tour is based on the ghost hunter’s own paranormal experiences and research in the historic neighborhood. Guests have the opportunity to visit after hours some of Old Town’s oldest buildings, including the Whaley House, constructed in 1856 on a former gallows site and believed to be one of the most haunted houses in America.
• Ghostly Tours in History presents a frightseeing 3-hour adventure that takes guests to some of the oldest areas of San Diego, unearthing local ghosts and legends and their favorite haunts. Some of the spooky sights include Tesoro, a Gaslamp Quarter restaurant that was once one of San Diego’s first mortuaries, and Villa Montezuma, a grand Victorian mansion that was home to the eccentric San Diego spiritualist, Jesse Shepard. Ghostly Tours in History operates year-round.
• During Sept. 23 – Oct. 31, screamin' good times await in downtown San Diego at the Gaslamp Quarter's popular The Haunted Hotel, where guests venture through rooms and hallways inspired by haunts from Hollywood’s favorite horror films. At the Haunted Trail of Terror in Balboa Park, guests run for their lives through an outdoor maze of walkways patrolled by creepy spooks and spirits.
• Night crawlers enjoy the annual Monster Bash in the Gaslamp Quarter occurring 6:00 pm to midnight on Oct. 29. This annual outdoor music festival takes over the historic neighborhood’s streets with live musical performances on multiple stages, beer gardens and an extreme costume contest. This ticketed event is for guests ages 21 and older.
• San Diego's uptown community of Hillcrest offers devilish delights during Nightmare on Normal Street, an annual Halloween street party and costume contest at the San Diego LGBT Community Center on Oct. 29. Festivities include music, food, a beer garden and other ghoulish entertainment.

TALK TURKEY

• Hornblower Cruises & Events offers a Thanksgiving Day Buffet Cruise on Nov. 24 that is perfect for entertaining guests without all the hard work in the kitchen. Guests are greeted with a boarding glass of champagne, then escorted to their table. The traditional Thanksgiving buffet is decorated in the holiday spirit and includes all the Thanksgiving favorites!

SPORTING GOOD TIMES

• During Sept. 16 – 19, the thrilling San Diego Bayfair features thunderboat racing, tunnel hulls, drag boats, hydroplanes, fireworks and concerts, as well as specialty vendors and food, along and on the waters of Mission Bay.
• Starting in September, the National Football League’s San Diego Chargers begin their 2011 season with home games at SDCCU Stadium in Mission Valley. The first home game of the season pits the Chargers against the Minnesota Vikings on Sept. 11.
• During Nov. 12-20, the America’s Cup World Series (AC World Series) comes to San Diego, featuring both fleet and match sailboat racing on San Diego Bay.   The regatta provides the public an opportunity to watch the world’s top sailors compete on the state-of-the-art AC45 wing-sailed catamarans; this is the first time the high-tech boats will be seen in the United States. 

MILITARY HERITAGE

• Fleet Week San Diego, Sept. 16 – Oct. 2, is heralded as the largest military appreciation event in the nation and features a variety of events and activities throughout the city.

Happy happens in San Diego. For more information on San Diego offerings, including exciting vacation packages and valuable coupons for attractions, restaurants and more, visit the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau's Web site, www.sandiego.org, or call 619-236-1212. In San Diego, visit the International Visitor Information Center, located along the Embarcadero at the corner of West Broadway and Harbor Drive in downtown; the La Jolla Visitor Center, located at the corner of Herschel Avenue and Prospect Street in La Jolla; or the California Welcome Center, located at the Viejas Outlet Center in Alpine.

Joe Timko 619-557-2812
jtimko@sdcvb.org
Candice Eley 619-557-2889
celey@sdcvb.org
Sarah Weinberg 619-557-2838
sweinberg@sdcvb.org