Cal Expo is about to glow again. Imaginarium's Holiday Magic festival opens Saturday with 13 festive worlds and more than 15 million LED lights spread across the Sacramento fairgrounds, welcoming visitors of all ages for a season of carnival rides, ice skating and nightly spectacle that runs well into the new year.
The event bills itself as California's largest holiday light festival, according to Cal Expo's event listing, which describes guests discovering those 13 themed worlds lit up with the massive LED display. As reported by KCRA, the festival opens Saturday, Nov. 14, and will run through Jan. 4, 2027, giving Sacramento families nearly two months to make the trip.
Beyond the lights, the lineup leans into full-blown holiday carnival territory. Per the same KCRA report, attendees can enjoy an ice rink, carnival rides, immersive mirror rooms, a nightly balloon drop, a K-pop holiday tribute show and circus performances. Those hoping to ride need to plan ahead — a wristband is required for the carnival rides, and reservations are highly recommended for the ice rink, the station notes.
Hours Shift Through the Week, With a Holiday Closure
Festival hours aren't fixed all week. The event runs 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and stretches to 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, per the station's report. Families penciling in a weeknight visit should plan around the earlier closing time, while weekend crowds get an extra hour under the lights.
One date to skip entirely: Thanksgiving. The event will be closed that day, according to the event's website, as cited in the same account. That leaves a single-day gap in an otherwise nightly run stretching from mid-November through the first week of January.
How This Year's Light Count Stacks Up
Sacramento has seen Imaginarium's Holiday Magic festival before. Earlier KCRA coverage of a past edition described the festival as featuring more than 5 million lights, a notably smaller figure than this year's advertised count of over 15 million. It's not clear whether those counts were tallied using the same methods or describe directly comparable editions of the event, but the jump reflects a festival that has clearly scaled up its footprint at Cal Expo.
For now, the draw remains the same: a sprawling, lit-up fairground experience built for every age group, from toddlers eyeing the ice rink to teens chasing the K-pop tribute show. With the season stretching nearly eight weeks, Sacramento-area families have plenty of nights to pick from before Imaginarium packs up its 15 million lights in early January.
