Gold Rush Days

September 3 - September 6

More than 200 tons of dirt will be dumped onto the streets of Old Sacramento as the annual Gold Rush Days festival "turns back the clock," transforming Sacramento's historic district into a scene straight out of the 1850s. Costumed re-enactors, Wild West gun fights, musicians playing period instruments, and many aspects of life during the Gold Rush will be highlighted during the four-day event.

Celebrating its 11th anniversary this year, the festival features period artifacts, storytelling, food preparation, dancers, and musicians.

Gold Rush Days takes place in Old Sacramento, a four-block historic district founded in 1848 that was a major commercial and agricultural center during the Gold Rush. Now it is Sacramento's most popular destination. Visitors experience everything from wagon trains to stagecoaches, riverboats to the first transcontinental railroad. Old Sacramento sits along the Sacramento River and is filled with dozens of restaurants, shops, museums, and saloons.