Hesperia Days

The day begins at the southeast corner of Main Street and E Avenue. For the 2026 Hesperia Days, held Saturday, September 19, check-in for the 5K Run, Walk, and Skate opened at 6:15 a.m. at the Percy Bakker Community Center, 9333 E Avenue. Runners, walkers, and skaters had until 7:25 to line up, and the race started at 7:30. Entry was free, same-day registration was taken, and an official T-shirt could be pre-ordered for $15. In earlier years, the Victorville Daily Press reported in 2021, the race started at 8 a.m. near the same corner and ran west toward Peach Avenue before turning back. The Hesperia Recreation and Park District runs the celebration and holds it every fall. A free Intergenerational Dinner on the Thursday before opened the 2026 festivities.

Floats down Main Street

At 9 a.m. the parade comes down Main Street. The Rock’n Our Disabilities Foundation, a Victorville nonprofit, organizes it and gives the route as I Avenue to E Avenue. The district’s event map put the start at the corner of Main and Sultana Street. In 2021 the Daily Press had the entries gathering near Timberlane Avenue and finishing on E Avenue near the Sizzler restaurant. The line is made up of floats, local marching bands, and community groups. The foundation’s call for entries that year also named vehicles, first responders, and animals. Roads along the route close for the morning.

The 2019 theme was “Under the Big Top.” Thousands of spectators lined Main Street that year to watch the grand marshal, Bruce Henderson, lead the parade in a Mercedes convertible. Henderson had played football for Sultana High School. He was 17 when he suffered a traumatic brain injury in the fourth quarter of a home game in September 2016, and he spent nearly four weeks in the hospital before going home.

An afternoon and evening at the lake

After the parade the crowd moves to Hesperia Lake Park, 7500 Arrowhead Lake Road, where the 2026 celebration opened at 11 a.m. Admission was free and parking at the lake cost $10 a vehicle. The district tells visitors to bring lawn chairs and picnic blankets. The park is a pay-to-fish lake. In catfish season it is stocked every Friday with 1,000 pounds of channel catfish. The John Swisher Community Center on the grounds looks east to the San Bernardino mountain range and west over the water. Fishing was closed September 18 through 20, 2026, for the events.

The American Music Festival fills the afternoon. The 2026 bill listed Lenor & That 80’s Band, Marty Calderon & The Chulos, and Shotgun Jefferson. Around the stage were food trucks, food and retail vendors, and a Kids Fun Zone. The Hesperia Boxing Duck Race Fundraiser also ran at the lake during the 2026 celebration. Duck adoptions pay for the Hesperia Boxing Program, which the district says keeps local youth sports free. Brenda Dorado took first place and a $300 Visa gift card, Michele Edman second, and Tami Meza third. In 2021 the Daily Press mentioned an annual Great Duck Race hosted by the Victor Valley Community Services Council. The fireworks went up at 7:30 p.m., and the district’s posted schedule ran the day from 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.

On the same grounds, the Hesperia Days Jaripeo Rodeo ran September 19 and 20, 2026, at the Val Shearer Arena from 4 to 9 p.m. Admission was $22, and children under 5 got in free. Tickets were sold at the Lime Street Community Center, the Hesperia Lake Store, and Ayala’s Bar & Grill. The district posted video of the bull riding from the first night.

A rodeo queen in 1948

According to the Daily Press, the event began in 1948, when 13-year-old Lillian (Stratton) Platt wore the crown as the first Miss Hesperia and rodeo queen. The district dates Hesperia Days to the same year. The sources count the years differently. The Daily Press called the 2021 event the 72nd edition. The foundation’s 2026 parade page calls that year’s parade the 75th annual.

In 2020 a statewide mandate against large gatherings, meant to slow the spread of COVID-19, cancelled the parade along with the rest of the festivities. Nicolas Chavez had been hired as the district’s general manager that July, and so he missed what would have been his first Hesperia Days. In April 2021 he announced a two-day event to begin September 18. “The District is greatly looking forward to bringing back the family tradition, modified slightly for the current climate,” Chavez wrote. Dana Hernandez, the foundation’s founder and CEO, was already lining up parade entries. “It was such a bummer when we had to cancel everything last year because of the pandemic,” she said. The 2021 plan split the 5K into two starts, one for competitive runners and one for walkers and non-competitive runners. The Sunday program added the Hesperia Wranglers Gymkhana.

The 2020 cancellation was a first. Before it, the district told the Daily Press, the parade had never been fully called off. The only part of the celebration ever dropped had been a fireworks show, scrapped for inclement weather.