The Santa Paula Kiwanis Club and the city of Santa Paula are planning its 37th annual Citrus Festival with a great weekend of headline entertainment at Harding Park. The festival starts at 4 p.m. Fri., July 16 and runs through 10 p.m. Sun., July 18.

Free headline entertainment begins at 8 p.m. Friday with the popular Latin R&B band "Tierra," voted best R&B vocal group by four music magazines, including Billboard. Saturday night’s entertainment includes 90 minutes with Raymond Michael’s "Elvis," plus the Yari More Salsa Orquestra, Ellsworth Barranca with Angela Skeels, and Tom Thumb and the Hitchikers classic rock.

The festival’s citrus and avocado pavilion will feature competitions for biggest avocado, orange and lemon, the best guacamole and various desserts. Contests will include orange and lemon eating, peeling and citrus packing.

The Santa Paula Citrus Parade will begin at 7th and Main streets at 10 a.m. Sat., July 17 with classic cars, bands, floats, an antique fire engine, equestrians and the Wells Fargo stagecoach and horses.

The Citrus Festival features a wide variety of food and refreshment vendors, arts and crafts booths and a beer and margarita garden. Family carnival rides will run, and ride tickets can be purchased in advance or at the door. A free old-time trolley will ferry visitors from the downtown, airport and depot to the festival.

A special "Taste and See" Ag Tour will kick off the Citrus Festival weekend at 8:30 a.m. July 16 at the landmark Santa Paula Depot. A chartered bus will take visitors to five Heritage Valley agricultural centers and include a barbecue lunch at the famous Limoneira Ranch headquarters.

For reservations or details, please call the Santa Paula Chamber of Commerce at (805) 525-5561.