During the evening portion of the Rancho Mirage Festival of Arts, the scene switches to the city amphitheater.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JENNIFER YOUNT
Fall is a season of reawakening in the desert. Summer’s heat recedes, leaving cool, clear mornings and pleasantly warm afternoons. Residents emerge from air-conditioned shelter, ready for engagement. Visitors and snowbirds migrate back to their favorite vacation spot, eager to spend time outdoors and see what’s new.
Against this backdrop of renewal, Rancho Mirage Festival of the Arts bursts forth. Held the first weekend of November, the event signals the opening of the Coachella Valley’s arts festival season. To commemorate its 20th year, the beloved event has been reinvented.
At sunset, the celebration closes and the focus shifts to the city amphitheater, where a free concert rounds out a day filled with beauty, passion, and inspiration.
The 20th annual festival takes place Nov. 5–6. For the most up-to-date event details and information, visit ranchomirageca.gov.
participating artists
Tim Shockley
A Coachella Valley native, sculptor Tim Shockley finds inspiration in his surrounding desert environment. His meticulously detailed works bring forth a sense of organic surrealism, combining natural elements into dreamlike juxtapositions and structural hybrids, using a variety of media, including wood, metal, and mixed-media assemblage.
Kim Manfredi
The pandemic inspired a period of experimentation, in which painter Kim Manfredi began applying paint in a free, liberating, and abstract way. As an avid cyclist, Manfredi’s daily rides through the valley and into the mountains inform her artistic vision and provide the raw materials for new paintings. She is a founder of the Desert Open Studios Tour.