South Natomas Community Center Park will fill with live music, food trucks and a beer garden this Saturday as the neighborhood marks the 16th annual Celebrate Natomas festival, a free community gathering expected to draw roughly 1,000 attendees. The event runs from 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at 2921 Truxel Road, offering families a night of entertainment, raffles and children's activities before summer winds down.
The festival is hosted by Sacramento Vice Mayor Karina Talamantes, who represents Natomas on the city council, in collaboration with Mayor Kevin McCarty, Councilman Eric Guerra and Councilman Roger Dickinson, according to the Sacramento Bee. The expected attendance figure comes per Talamantes' office, the outlet reports. Live musicians will perform covers of songs by James Brown and Bruno Mars, while students from School of Rock will play original pieces of their own.
Beyond the music, the event celebrates the northern Sacramento community with a full slate of family-friendly offerings. Kids can enjoy a bounce house, face painting and a photo booth, while adults 21 and older can visit the beer garden. Local Sacramento-area food trucks will serve meals throughout the evening, community vendors will sell items on-site, and organizers plan to raffle off various prizes to attendees, per the same account.
Getting There Without a Car
Festival organizers are leaning on local transit partners to make the event easier to reach without driving. Regional transit is providing free shuttle service from Natomas High School to the community park, running every 10 to 15 minutes per festival organizers. Attendees can also valet their bicycles for free at the community center park, the report notes.
Local transportation nonprofit North Natomas Jibe organized an all-ages, 9-mile community group bike ride on Saturday to bring residents directly to the festival, complementing the free bike valet. Formed in 1999 as the North Natomas Transportation Management Association, the nonprofit has long promoted walking, cycling and public transit alternatives throughout the Natomas area and frequently partners with city council leaders on local events. The free shuttle service arrives amid broader shifts in the region's transit landscape — in December 2024, Sacramento Regional Transit replaced its SmaRT Ride microtransit service with SacRT Flex to cut annual operating expenses, offering subsidized shared mobility options aimed at low-income residents, seniors and riders with disabilities, according to CapRadio.
A Park With Deep Neighborhood Roots
The South Natomas Community Center and its surrounding 25-acre park opened to the public in October 2001, giving the neighborhood a hub that includes the South Natomas Library, rentable conference rooms, a computer lab, a rose garden and the Fort Natomas playground, according to the City of Sacramento. That history makes the venue a fitting home for a tradition now in its 16th year, one Talamantes has made a centerpiece of her time representing District 3, which covers South Natomas, Gardenland and Northgate. She took office in December 2022 after previously serving as president of the Sacramento County Board of Education and chief of staff to former Councilmember Angelique Ashby, per the City of Sacramento.
Talamantes' swearing-in that same month, alongside Councilmembers Lisa Kaplan and Caity Maple, marked the creation of the first female-majority city council in Sacramento's history, per the City of Sacramento. Mayor Kevin McCarty, who co-hosts Saturday's festival, took office as the city's 57th mayor in December 2024 after winning that November's general election, following a decade in the California State Assembly and ten years on the Sacramento City Council, according to CapRadio.
Growth Reshaping the Neighborhood Around the Festival
The festival lands against a backdrop of rapid change in South Natomas. In August 2025, the Sacramento Planning and Design Commission unanimously approved plans for a 45,000-square-foot Topgolf venue along Venture Oaks Boulevard, a project championed by Talamantes that is estimated to bring 250,000 annual visitors and 250 jobs, according to ABC10. That same month, the city also launched a creative crosswalks initiative in South Natomas and Gardenland-Northgate, pairing public art with pedestrian safety upgrades near school zones, as Hoodline previously reported.
Housing is also on the move nearby. In July, plans were submitted for a 140-unit affordable housing development at 1900 Club Center Drive in North Natomas, with about 25% of units reserved for households with intellectual or developmental disabilities. Together, the Topgolf project, the crosswalk upgrades and the housing filings point to a district absorbing significant residential and commercial growth — growth that local leaders say makes free community gatherings like Celebrate Natomas an increasingly important way to bring neighbors together.
