Arizona Indian Festival 2022: Experience The State's 22 Tribes

SCOTTSDALE, AZ — The Arizona American Indian Festival is the only way to experience the cultures of the states 22 Native American tribes at once.

The festival, which aligns with Scottsdale's biggest events of the year: Western Week and Parada del Sol, is set for 9 a.m-4 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday at First Street and Brown Avenue in Old Town Scottsdale. Admission is free.

The festival, which began in 1994, is the Arizona American Indian Tourism Association's big annual event for the public, featuring things like food and drinks, arts and crafts for sale from native artisans and a chance to meet tribal royalty.

Jeffrey Ferns, marketing and public relations representative for the tourism association, hopes that festival attendees learn a little about the diverse traditions of the tribes, each with its own language, food source and traditional performances. He also hopes people come away with the realization that tribal lands “have beautiful, extraordinary places for attendees to visit outside of the festival, year round.”

Ferns' favorite part of the festival is the string of traditional performances that span the length of the event.

“It’s interesting to see all these tribes lined up singing in their native tongue and doing their performances in their ceremonial regalia,” he said. “For me that’s the most exciting.”

Because the festival runs alongside Scottsdale's Western Week, Ferns said he loves seeing the diversity of the crowd, including tourists, natives, foodies and locals.

While last year's Parada del Sol, Western Week's annual parade, was canceled because of the pandemic, the American Indian Festival was not.

Last year's attendance was much smaller than is typical, because the pandemic, with only around 7,000-9,000 visitors, Ferns estimated. Usually the festival draws around 17,000. Ferns wasn't sure what to expect this year, but anticipated a much larger crowd since Parada del Sol is back on.

Ferns advises doing some planning ahead of the event to avoid headaches, by checking out which streets are closed for the parade and other festivities and finding a good place to park, or taking public transportation.

He added that, with so many things going in in Scottsdale this weekend, festival attendees should plan to be gone all day.

Last year, Ferns said, everyone involved was just thankful that the festival was still on. Many native artisans who get most of the income through sales at events were hurting last year with so many of them canceled.

“And the attendees were just excited to be around humans,” Ferns said. “So overall there was just an appreciation of being able to experience socially, arts and culture and crafts again, collectively.”