Riverside Dickens Festival

The Riverside Dickens Festival is a Victorian-themed literary festival in Riverside, California, founded in 1992 when Carolyn Grant and Joan Patton persuaded the Friends of the Riverside Library that the city needed a literary event. Run by a 501(c)(3) non-profit, it works to promote literacy, provide educational entertainment, and draw parallels between Victorian times and the present, drawing around 8,000 attendees over a weekend. Programming includes live Victorian, folk and classical music, author and actor readings and dramatizations, costumed Victorian and steampunk characters, craft and Victorian goods vendors, themed food stalls, a school day, a lantern walk and a pub night.