Placentia's Centennial Fall: What's Left on the Calendar Between the Heritage Festival and the Birthday

The Placentia Heritage Festival parade is listed to step off at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, October 10, at Bastanchury Road and Kraemer Boulevard, then head north on Kraemer to Tri-City Park. The pancake breakfast at the park starts three hours earlier. That is less than two weeks from now, and it is the last big daytime event of a year the city has spent celebrating its 100th anniversary.

Placentia's centennial was planned as a year with two ends. The formal events sit at the front, and the community party sits at the back. The stretch that remains has two Saturdays in it, eight weeks apart, and the ordinary places around Old Town fill the gap between them.

Two Saturdays, Eight Weeks Apart

The City Council proclaimed 2026 the Centennial Year on January 13, according to the city's press release. Placentia was incorporated on December 2, 1926. The city's Winter 2025/26 newsletter laid out the arc, and the table below tracks it against today's date.

The gala and the 5K are behind the city. The newsletter also says the regular events, including the Heritage Festival, Concerts in the Park and Movies in the Park, would carry special centennial features and historical tributes. That makes October 10 the one long-running community event I could confirm on the remaining calendar that the city has said will carry the centennial theme. I could not find a published list of what those tributes will be, so the festival day itself may hold surprises.

The anniversary and the party also fall on different days. December 2 is a Wednesday. The city's birthday celebration and tree lighting are scheduled for the Saturday after, December 5, which puts the party three days after the actual birthday.

Saturday, October 10, in Order

The Enjoy OC listing for the festival gives a full timetable. Here it is in sequence.

1. 6:30 a.m. The pancake breakfast opens at Tri-City Park and runs until 10 a.m.
2. 9:00 a.m. The Heritage Car Show opens and runs until 3 p.m.
3. 9:15 a.m. The band review takes place ahead of the parade.
4. 9:30 a.m. The parade starts at Bastanchury Road and Kraemer Boulevard and travels north on Kraemer to the park.
5. 10:00 a.m. The festival opens at Tri-City Park, with a day of food, games, crafts, local vendors, a business expo and military appreciation. It closes at 3 p.m.

Admission is free, though food, games and rides cost money. The listing names free parking at Tuffree Middle School, 2101 Tuffree Boulevard. Tri-City Park sits at 2301 N. Kraemer Boulevard, and older city event pages place it on Kraemer at Golden Avenue.

That Enjoy OC page was published in August 2025, and it lists 2026 dates a year ahead. The festival's own website says it is updating its details for the 2026 event, and one festival directory shows the 2026 dates as not yet updated, with last year's event held on Saturday, October 11, 2025. October 10 is the second Saturday of the month, the same slot as last year's date. Before you plan around the 6:30 a.m. pancakes or the Tuffree parking, check placentiaheritagefestival.org or the city's centennial page for the confirmed schedule.

The parade route matters if you plan to watch it. Earlier city listings described the parade starting at Morse Avenue, and the Enjoy OC listing starts it at Bastanchury Road. Treat the starting point as something to confirm before you pick a curb.

The Weeks Between

I found no citywide centennial event published for the gap between October 10 and December 5. The city has filled part of the year another way. It partnered with local restaurants on fundraisers, with a portion of a diner's meal going toward the Centennial Celebration. Placentia's own TacosWay appears in the city's centennial photo gallery wearing the anniversary T-shirts. The city's news flash says anyone who wants to take part shows the fundraiser flyer, printed or digital, to their server on the day.

Broken Timbers Brewing Company in Old Town, owned by Heidi Mahnke, hosted the February 2025 merchants' meeting where the city walked business owners through the streetscape plan. Event listings for September 2026 showed a charcuterie and beer pairing workshop at Broken Timbers, stand-up comedy at The Bruery Tasting Room in Placentia, and a Buziness and Brewz gathering at Stereo Brewing. Those were September dates, so check each venue for October programming before you go.

The District That Started It Is Still Being Drawn

The city's newsletter traces how "a Pleasant Place to Live" came to be. The Tongva village of Hutuknga came first, then Juan Pacifico Ontiveros's 1837 land grant, then settlers including Daniel Kraemer, William and Sarah McFadden and Charles Wagner. The late 1800s citrus boom made the Valencia orange the signature crop, and A.S. Bradford and Charles Chapman laid out the early townsite along what is now Old Town.

The same district is where the city's next big construction project is aimed. The state's environmental filing for the Old Town Streetscape Improvement describes removing all existing sidewalks along Bradford Avenue from Chapman to Santa Fe, plus Santa Fe Avenue and Aguirre Lane, and replacing them with much wider panels. The plan adds street and pedestrian lighting, corner bulb-outs, parkway landscaping, Class I bike routes on Bradford and Santa Fe, and more than 100 new trees. The city's Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District page puts the cost at about $10.05 million, up 25.6 percent from the original estimate of roughly $8 million.

The timeline has been slow to firm up. Voice of OC reported in 2025 that business owners and residents were pressing the council to move ahead. In May 2025 the council voted to fund $150,000 in final design work and to prepare bid documents with alternates aimed at a $10 million construction target. The city's winter newsletter says construction was anticipated to begin in fall 2026. I could not find confirmation that a contract has been awarded or that work has started, so any Old Town visit on October 10 or in the weeks after should be planned around sidewalks that are open as they are today. The city's website is the place to check for a start date.

The district's paperwork is moving even before the concrete is. At a May 5, 2026 hearing, the council took up annexing four more Old Town properties into a community facilities district created in 2024 to pay for ongoing maintenance of the streetscape improvements. Those properties are Mexico Supermarket at 132 West Santa Fe Avenue, the property at 101 West Santa Fe, a new two-story building at 202 West Santa Fe and Micasita restaurant at 330 West Santa Fe. The district applies to new development and to rehabilitation projects with a construction valuation above $25,000.

December 5, With a Wednesday in Front of It

The birthday celebration and tree lighting on December 5 is the closing event on the city's schedule. The newsletter says it and the January gala were meant to bookend the year. The date itself, December 2, falls three days earlier, on a Wednesday, and the city's homepage notes that Placentia turns 100 on that day.

Details for the December event were not on the pages I found beyond the date and the name. The centennial page at placentia.org/2026 is where the city says it will post updates, and it has a contact for questions, Communications and Marketing Manager Nicolette Drulias.

Rance Cooper has spent more than two decades around Placentia, Fullerton and Yorba Linda, and the Placentia neighborhood page collects more of that local knowledge. If you'll be at the parade on October 10 or the tree lighting on December 5 and want to talk about Placentia, Let's Connect.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.