Last Year's Highlights

Festival goers were treated to a variety of bean features this year in “Bean Town”, from bean ice cream and pies to bean soups and salads. The free bean tastings, featuring various bean dishes complements of Home Town Buffet, was a great success as festival newcomers are now big bean food fans. “Beans for Health” presentations were also put on, displaying the nutritional importance of beans and bean products.

 Bean companies, farmers and distributors were also very happy seeing increased sales and support. Many “Bean Town” participants say this was the best bean display in festival history.

Smokey Borges was voted this years chili bean and bean soup cook off winner. This is his third year in a row winning the chili cook off. He will be using his prize money to buy the food he uses to feed the homeless every week in Tracy.

The focus was definitely on beans through out the festival. The Grand Theater Center of the Arts hosted a gallery of bean mosaics created by students from Williams Middle school. Winners of the mosaic contest included a panda mosaic, a mosaic of President Barak Obama and a mosaic of the California flag.  Another unique feature to this years beans festival car show was the incorporation of beans in the car show awards.

Both stages were packed with double the entertainment from community vocal and dance schools to performance groups and bands. Tracy’s own “Latin Essence” drew a crowd of over 500 people to the main stage to close off the festivities on Sunday.

An over all success, the Dry Bean Festival retraced its roots and got to the heart of the festivities bringing the “bean” back in “bean festival”.

Bean Festival Featured on Sacramento & Co.

This Year's Dates:
Saturday, September 11th 10AM-7PM

Sunday, September 12th 10AM-7PM