Village Fest Night Market at Palm Springs California USA

Palm Springs Village Fest is a night shopping day happen every Thursday night from 6 pm to 10 pm.  We were lucky as we were in Palm Springs on the Thursday night, few days before Christmas.  Palm Springs Village Fest is a special activity which only happen here, attracting many local tourists every week.

Village Fest in Palm Springs is something like our “Pasar Malam”  or Night Market.  When we were driving towards our hotel at around 4.30 pm, we saw there were road block and only realized it was the Village Fest when we came out to have our dinner.

The Village Fest is situated in the heart of downtown Palm Springs, Off Palm Canyon Drive – just two minutes walk from where we stayed. I was kind of shocked to see so many people crowd the place suddenly in this small town with population only at around 48,000 residents.

We have a stroll in the evening and found out there were entertainment, art, food and shopping offer at Palm Springs Village Fest Street Fair. I also noticed there were many local tourists coming here to enjoy the Village Fest atmosphere.

Talented Musicians

I found about 6 musicians at the Village Fest, young, old or native singers.

Colorful Lamps

Shops selling candles

Japanese Health Massage

Stall set up in this way, look very much like the Thai massage in Thailand.  The Asian immigrants here love to associate anything with “Japan” because anything associate with Japan sound superior and prestige and can charge more.

Police Car at the end of the road at Village Fest

American Native Indian Musicians

Listen to good native musics, using all the native instruments to play.

Palm Springs Police

It was interesting to see Palm Springs Police also has a stall here, selling tee shirts 🙂

Creation from Local Artisan

You get to see or buy the artwork from the local artisan, most of the things they made are made by hands and pretty original, not those mass production stuff.

Artist at Work

Palm Springs Animal Shelter

I have donated few dollars for the animal shelter.

Horse Feeding & Animal Petting

Some farmers even bring their livestock here, visitors who like to feed the farm animals donate $5 to $10.00 and have a chance to touch and feed the horses.  There are also rabbits and pigs.

Santa’s Grotto

Gym Pilates workshop 

Pilates instructor demonstrates in front of the crowd, how he uses the machine to work together with his move and flexibility.

Another Singer in Village Fest

Restaurants & Dining

There are many restaurants to choose from near Village Fest night market, pizza, burger, Thai, Japanese, Mexican etc.

Brickworks – serves pizza & burger

Maracas Mexican Restaurants – serving Mexican cuisine & margaritas & teguilas.

Crazy Mels Burgers & Bar with Interesting Deco

Japanese Cuisine vs Chinese Cuisine

We wanted something hot as the weather is super cold at night in Palm Spring because it is desert land.  Finally we went for Japanese because we can’t find Chinese. Having been living in Japan for years, I think I can tell what is an authentic Japanese cuisine or not.  The below noodles tasted way different from the real typical Japanese udon and ramen.

Why Japanese Restaurants are everywhere?

In America, I can’t say whole America, as I only travel in the California state, I found there were not many Chinese Restaurants as compared to Japanese restaurants which can be seen everywhere.  In facts, most Japanese restaurants are not owned by Japanese but owned by Korean or Chinese immigrants. I noticed that after eating in several Japanese restaurants during our stay in California.

Eating Japanese cuisine in America seems like a trendy and prestige things. May be small piece of rice and some protein on top – sushi has a better presentation than a stir fry in a big plate. Another reason why less Chinese restaurants could be due to the price is too low compared to Japanese, owner can make more profit if they sell Japanese rather than Chinese food.  Not sure with the uprising of China, there will be more upscale Chinese restaurants in America?

Final thoughts :

The Village Fest Palm Springs is really a nice discovery for us as this only happen every Thursday night.  We are lucky to be able to experience and see the local artisan and farmers coming together in the street fair to promote their products.  Along the routes, few musician with different style of music sing for the visitors, pretty cool vibe.  Yeah, you should look at the way local vendor made the pop corn, pretty interesting for someone who comes from Asia.  This is the place for everyone I guess, farmers, artisan, musician, police & animals all gather at night to have a great party.  Overall, I have great fun.

Other attractions in Palm Springs California :

• Palm Springs Aerial Tramride
• Cabazon Desert Hills Premium Outlet Shopping
• Palm Springs Downtown
• Road Trip Palm Springs to Las Vegas

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