Phoenix skyline at sunset in February winter light

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PHOENIX

February is the month Phoenix stops warming up and starts showing off. Golf takes over TPC Scottsdale, a horse drawn parade fills Old Town, baseball comes back, and the Renaissance Festival opens out past the Superstitions. This is the February layer of our year-round ranking (things to do in Phoenix, the 25 best), cut down to what this one month does best.

Read the month as three acts. Act one is Western Week. Scottsdale closes its heritage week with the Parada del Sol Parade on Saturday, February 6 and the Arizona Indian Festival on February 6 and 7, and that same Saturday night the 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale turns into a concert stage. Act two is the big overlap: the WM Phoenix Open runs February 8 to 14 at TPC Scottsdale while the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show fills WestWorld, February 11 to 21, a few minutes away, and the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show holds its finale weekend down south, February 11 to 14. Act three belongs to baseball. The Cactus League is scheduled to open Friday, February 19 across ten ballparks, and the month ends loud, with Innings Festival in Tempe, February 26 to 28. Running through all of it, every weekend from February 6, the Arizona Renaissance Festival builds its village in Gold Canyon. Underneath the events, the weather keeps improving on January: NOAA’s 30 year normals for Sky Harbor put the average February high at 70.8° and the low at 49°. That is all day hiking weather with a jacket in the morning.

February at a glance

Weather: average high 70.8°, average low 49° (NOAA 1991 to 2020 normals). Short sleeves by noon, a jacket after dark, sunset near 6 p.m. and getting later. Feb 6: Parada del Sol Parade, Old Town Scottsdale, 9:30 a.m. to noon, free to watch; Trail’s End Festival from noon. Feb 6 and 7: Arizona Indian Festival, Scottsdale Civic Center. Feb 6 and 7: World Championship Hoop Dance Contest, Heard Museum, gates 8:30 a.m. Feb 6: Concert in the Coliseum at the TPC Scottsdale 16th hole, Imagine Dragons and Counting Crows. Feb 8 to 14: WM Phoenix Open, TPC Scottsdale; free admission Mon and Tue, $75 Wed, Thu and Sun, $125 Fri and Sat, plus fees; tournament rounds Thu to Sun. Feb 11 to 21: Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show, WestWorld. Feb 11 to 14: Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, Tucson Convention Center, $15, kids 14 and under free with a paying adult; last days of the citywide Gem Showcase, which closes Feb 14. Weekends from Feb 6: Arizona Renaissance Festival, Gold Canyon, Sat and Sun 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., plus Presidents Day, Mon Feb 15; $39 adults and $25 ages 5 to 12 in advance, a dollar more at the gate, parking free. Thursdays: Scottsdale ArtWalk, Old Town, 7 to 9 p.m., free. All month: Celebration of Fine Art, Scottsdale, daily 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; a $12 ticket bought in January is a season pass and still works. Feb 18: Greater Phoenix Jewish Film Festival opens, running into March. Feb 19: Cactus League opening day, scheduled, 15 teams in 10 ballparks (see the labor note in the warnings). Feb 26 to 28: Innings Festival, Tempe Beach Park; Pitbull Fri, The Strokes Sat, Alanis Morissette Sun. Hotels: peak season all month, tightest Feb 8 to 14. Book early.

The headline events

Most months have a headline. February has five, and two of them happen at the same time on purpose. Pace yourself, and pick your weekends instead of trying to do all of them.

Golf · Feb 8 to 14

WM Phoenix Open, TPC Scottsdale

The anchor, and the loudest week in golf. The 92nd WM Phoenix Open, billed as The People’s Open, takes over the TPC Scottsdale Stadium Course for the week of Monday, February 8 to Sunday, February 14, with the four tournament rounds running Thursday, February 11 to Sunday, February 14. The Stadium Course is a par 71 at 7,261 yards, and its par 3 16th hole is the famous one: a short hole wrapped in a full stadium of seats, the rowdiest room in the sport. Pricing has a gift built into it. Monday and Tuesday are free for all fans, the Ford Free Days, when you can walk the course and watch practice rounds and the pro-am for nothing. Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday general admission is $75; Friday and Saturday is $125, plus fees. The week even starts early: on Saturday, February 6, the Concert in the Coliseum puts Imagine Dragons and Counting Crows on a stage built in the middle of the 16th hole. Strategy: go Monday or Tuesday free if you are local and curious, go Thursday for real tournament golf with room to move, and go Saturday only if the full scene is the point. Sunday’s final round lands on Valentine’s Day, which settles the date question for golf couples and starts an argument in every other household. Verdict: the best people watching in American sports, with a golf tournament running through it. One day is right for most people; make it Thursday.

Western Week · Feb 6 and 7

Parada del Sol and the Arizona Indian Festival, Old Town

Before the golf starts, Scottsdale finishes Western Week the way it has for seven decades. The 73rd Annual Parada del Sol Parade rolls through Old Town on Saturday, February 6, 9:30 a.m. to noon: one of the largest horse drawn parades anywhere, about 150 entries of floats, mounted riders, carriages, stagecoaches and marching bands, drawing around 35,000 spectators. It is free to watch. The week warms up the day before, when the Hashknife Pony Express rides into Old Town on Friday, February 5, arriving around noon to 1 p.m. at Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West, finishing a 200 mile mail ride from Holbrook with the actual US mail in the saddlebags. It is free to watch, and kids can hand the riders letters to carry next year. On parade Saturday, stake out a spot on Scottsdale Road early, then follow the crowd into the Trail’s End Festival from noon, a Western block party with stages, food vendors and a kid zone. The same weekend, the Arizona Indian Festival fills Scottsdale Civic Center, Saturday, February 6, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, February 7, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with tribal tourism exhibits, traditional storytelling, music and dance, and artists and food from Arizona’s tribes. The two events sit a short walk apart, which makes Saturday the best free day of the Phoenix winter. Verdict: do the parade in the morning, the Indian Festival in the afternoon, and you have spent almost nothing for the fullest day of the month.

Hoop Dance · Feb 6 and 7

World Championship Hoop Dance Contest, Heard Museum

The same weekend, across town in Phoenix, the Heard Museum hosts the 37th World Championship Hoop Dance Contest, Saturday and Sunday, February 6 and 7, outdoors at the Libby Amphitheater. Dancers from across North America compete in five divisions, from Tiny Tots age 5 and under to a Senior division at 40 plus, judged on precision, timing and rhythm, showmanship, creativity and speed, with $25,000 in cash prizes on the line. The public gates open at 8:30 a.m., the contest starts at 9 a.m. and runs to 5 p.m. Sunday, rain or shine, and tickets are sold at the gate. A dancer spinning a dozen hoops into eagles, butterflies and globes at full speed is one of the great live sights in Arizona, and almost nobody visiting for the golf knows it is happening. Verdict: Saturday is spoken for in Old Town, so make this your Sunday. It pairs with the Arizona Indian Festival across the weekend like they were planned together.

Horses · Feb 11 to 21

Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show, WestWorld

While the golf crowd is at TPC, the horse world is five minutes away doing something older and quieter. The Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show runs Thursday, February 11 to Sunday, February 21 at WestWorld, 16601 N. Pima Road. It has run since 1955, this is the 72nd annual edition, and it has grown from 50 horses to nearly 2,000, which makes it the largest Arabian horse show in the world. Days run from morning classes into evening sessions across several arenas: halter classes, performance classes, dressage and equitation, plus a shopping expo of more than 200 vendor booths if what you actually need is boots, tack or art. You do not need to know horses to enjoy it. The animals are spectacular, the people watching rivals the golf, and a general admission day is an easy add to an Open week trip because WestWorld also serves as a Phoenix Open parking hub that week, so expect the two crowds to share roads and lots from February 11 to 14. General admission is $15, seniors $10, and youth 17 and under free, per the show’s official FAQ. Check scottsdaleshow.com for daily session times before you go. Verdict: the connoisseur’s pick of Open week. Go on a weekday morning and stay for an evening session.

Baseball · From Feb 19

Cactus League opening day

Baseball comes back in the back half of the month, all at once. MLB has announced the 2027 spring training schedule with every club opening on Friday, February 19, which puts 15 teams in 10 ballparks across one metro, from Surprise in the northwest Valley to Mesa in the east, most games starting around 1 p.m. Opening weekend, February 19 to 21, is the softest way into spring training: the crowds are still thinner than March, the players are close and signing along the fences, the outfield lawn seats are the cheapest good seats in professional sports, and mornings on the back fields are free. Read the warning below before you book a trip around it: the schedule is announced, and it still depends on a labor deal that has not been signed yet. Our Scottsdale spring training guide has the park by park detail, and our March guide carries the full season. Verdict: if your trip is late February, build it around a lawn seat, a morning hike and a 1 p.m. first pitch. That is the Valley’s best daily rhythm.

Festival · Every Weekend

Arizona Renaissance Festival, Gold Canyon

Every Saturday and Sunday from February 6 through April 4, plus Presidents Day, Monday, February 15, a 16th century village rises at 12601 E. US Highway 60 in Gold Canyon, about seven miles east of Apache Junction under the Superstition Mountains. The 39th annual festival runs 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., rain or shine: three jousting tournaments a day, falconry, 16 stages of nonstop shows, and a marketplace of more than 200 artisan shops with glassblowing, blacksmithing and weaving done live. Tickets are $39 for adults and $25 for ages 5 to 12 when you buy online or at Bashas’ and Food City stores statewide, a dollar more at the gate, plus tax and fees. Children 4 and under are free, and parking is free. It is a full day, not a drop in. Go early, because US-60 backs up on peak Saturdays, eat the turkey leg, and pair the trip with a Superstitions trail the next morning. Verdict: February’s best family day out, and the costumes are half the show. Presidents Day Monday is the local move, same festival, thinner crowd.

Music and Baseball · Feb 26 to 28

Innings Festival, Tempe

The month closes with the festival built for exactly this season. Innings Festival returns to Tempe Beach Park and Arts Park, Friday, February 26 to Sunday, February 28, for its ninth edition, pairing three days of music with baseball themed activities and appearances by former major leaguers during spring training. The headliners split the weekend cleanly: Pitbull on Friday, The Strokes on Saturday, and Alanis Morissette on Sunday, with Pierce The Veil, The Neighbourhood, 5 Seconds of Summer, Train, Death Cab for Cutie, Interpol, Yellowcard, Spoon and Shaggy further down the bill. Sets do not overlap, so one ticket really does let you see the whole lineup. One day, two day and three day tickets are on sale at inningsfestival.com, in tiers from general admission up to Platinum. Official face value runs $190 for a one day general admission ticket and $350 for three days, plus fees, and kids 8 and under get in free with a ticketed adult. The setting does a lot of the work: stages on the Tempe Town Lake waterfront, ballparks a few miles in every direction, and February evenings that start in a t-shirt and end in a jacket. Verdict: the strongest closing weekend the Phoenix calendar has. Pair a Friday or Saturday game with the same night’s headliner.

Day Trip · To Feb 14

Tucson gem season, the finale

The citywide Tucson Gem, Mineral and Fossil Showcase, dozens of shows at more than 40 locations, which opened January 27, closes Sunday, February 14. Its finale is the original: the 72nd Annual Tucson Gem and Mineral Show at the Tucson Convention Center, 260 S. Church Avenue, Thursday, February 11 to Sunday, February 14, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday to Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $15, children 14 and under free with a paying adult, and the 2027 theme is Minerals as Art. Go for the museum grade exhibits as much as the dealer tables. It is an easy day trip from a Phoenix base, 115 miles down I-10, and our Things to Do in Tucson hub plans the rest of the day once you are there. The full Tucson gem guide lands with our February Tucson page. Verdict: if you missed the showcase in January, this is the last call, and the main show is the one to pick.

[AFFILIATE: WM Phoenix Open week hotels in Scottsdale] · [AFFILIATE: hotels in Phoenix in February]

The desert, warming up

Red rock buttes at Papago Park in Phoenix in winter light
Papago Park in February. The events rotate by weekend, the red rocks do not.

The events are stacked two and three deep this month, but they still sit on top of the same foundation as January: the desert itself, three degrees warmer and a few minutes lighter every evening.

Outdoors · All Month

Hiking season, still peak

At a 70.8 degree average high, February keeps the whole trail map open and adds daylight. Camelback Mountain and Piestewa Peak are still the headline summits, South Mountain and the Phoenix Mountains Preserve give you miles instead of a climb, and the McDowell Sonoran Preserve in Scottsdale is the Open week escape, busy gateway trailheads but quiet an hour in. Event weekends fill the famous trailheads by mid morning, so the standing rule holds: start the big summits early, or take them on a weekday. Sunset lands near 6 p.m. at the start of the month and gets later every week, which quietly gives February evenings something January does not have. Carry more water than feels reasonable anyway. Dry 71 degrees fools people from wetter places. Verdict: hike in the morning, event in the afternoon. February is built for that split.

Early Bloom · Late Month

First wildflowers, honestly framed

February is not peak wildflower season, and any guide that promises you a blooming desert this month is selling something. What February gives you is the start: in a decent rain year, the first brittlebush, lupine and Mexican gold poppies show on south facing slopes and along washes in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, at Desert Botanical Garden and out at Picacho Peak in the last week or two of the month, while the big displays wait for March. Treat early color as a bonus on a hike you were taking anyway. There is one date to circle: the Garden runs a Wildflower Walk on Saturday, February 20 as part of member appreciation week, with the Desert Wildflower photographic display running February 20 to May 31 in the Webster Auditorium gallery. Check the Garden’s bloom reports before a dedicated trip, and if wildflowers are the whole point of your visit, book March instead. Our March guide is the wildflower plan. Verdict: green desert, first flowers, no crowds at the trailheads out past the suburbs. That is a good trade on its own.

Architecture · Winter Season Ends Feb 28

Taliesin West, last month of the winter block

Frank Lloyd Wright’s winter camp is in its home season through the end of the month. Taliesin West is open daily in the November 1 to February 28 block, the first self-guided audio tour starts at 10 a.m. and the last entrance is at 3:45 p.m. The tour runs 60 to 75 minutes through Wright’s living and working spaces and costs $44 for adults and $22 for ages 6 to 17. Reservations are required and tickets are limited, and Open week fills north Scottsdale, so book that week first. Bring headphones for the app based tour, and a hat: as much of the tour is outside as in. Verdict: pair it with a Thursday or Sunday at the golf, same corner of Scottsdale, completely different register.

Art Season · All Month

Celebration of Fine Art and Thursday ArtWalk

The art season that opened in January runs straight through February. Celebration of Fine Art, 100 artists in working studios under the white tents at Hayden Road and Mayo Boulevard, is open daily 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and its ticket stays the best small deal of the winter: $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and military, kids under 12 free, and the ticket is a season pass to March 28. If you bought one in January, February visits are already paid for. Friday afternoons add hour long artist talks from 4 to 5 p.m. Down in Old Town, the Scottsdale ArtWalk runs most Thursdays, 7 to 9 p.m., free, more than 50 galleries along Main Street and Marshall Way; February Thursdays fall on the 4th, 11th, 18th and 25th. The themed night to catch is the Western Week Gold Palette ArtWalk, listed by the Gallery Association for Friday, February 5, 6 to 9 p.m. (its listing also carries a Thursday, February 4 tag, so confirm on scottsdalegalleries.com that week), with parade theme activities, a Hashknife Pony Express exhibit and a stamp cancellation station across the Arts District, free. The 11th doubles as an Open week evening, busy in the good way. Verdict: the season pass is the repeat visit of the season. Use it between events.

Museums · Any Day

The MIM and the Heard, weekday edition

February weekends belong to events, which makes weekdays the museum play. The Musical Instrument Museum is open daily 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., admission $24 for adults, $15 for teens and $10 for kids 4 to 12, and guests average nearly four hours inside, so give it a half day. The Heard Museum on Central Avenue runs daily 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is the essential Phoenix museum in any month. Put one on the Tuesday or Wednesday of Open week, when the golf course is at its quietest and the museums are at their emptiest, and keep the other for the one rainy morning February might hand you. Verdict: MIM for the wow, Heard for the meaning. February is when locals get them back.

Garden · Daytime All Month

Desert Botanical Garden, green season

By February the Garden in Papago Park is shaking off winter: cactus green up, the first blooms start on the wildflower trail, and the light is still low and kind in the morning. Five trails through a living desert collection, best on a weekday morning at opening, and the natural reset day between event weekends. This winter the Garden also hosts Super Bloom, a large scale floral installation show that runs through May 31. February hours are daily 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and timed entry reservations for the day you want are the safe move; check dbg.org before you go, because the Garden adjusts prices by date. Verdict: the easiest yes on this page, for the second month running. Some picks repeat because they are right every month.

A February weekend, planned

Take the big one, February 11 to 14, and run it like this. Thursday: first round at the WM Phoenix Open. Real tournament golf, room to follow a group, and the 16th hole before the weekend turns it up. ArtWalk in Old Town that night if your legs allow it. Friday: morning session at the Arabian Horse Show at WestWorld, a few minutes from the course, then back to TPC for the second round or a slow afternoon at Celebration of Fine Art on your season pass. Saturday: third round golf for the scene, or skip the crowds entirely and drive the other way, out US-60 to the Renaissance Festival in Gold Canyon for jousting and turkey legs. Both are peak February; pick your crowd. Sunday: the final round, finishing on Valentine’s Day, or the last day of the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, 115 miles south, if rocks beat golf. Everything above sits within about 40 minutes of everything else, except Tucson, which earns its drive.

Coming late in the month instead, February 26 to 28? The shape is just as clean. A Cactus League game at 1 p.m., outfield lawn, then Innings Festival at Tempe Beach Park the same night: Pitbull on Friday, The Strokes on Saturday, Alanis Morissette on Sunday. Baseball in the sun, music on the lake, jacket by nine. Two different Februaries, same weather. That is the month in a sentence.

The honest warnings

February hotels are a book now problem. This is peak snowbird season layered with the WM Phoenix Open, the Arabian Horse Show and spring training, and Scottsdale during Open week, February 8 to 14, is one of the tightest and priciest hotel stretches of the year. Book as soon as your dates are set. Tempe and Mesa are the price relief, 20 to 30 minutes from TPC Scottsdale. The spring training caveat is real. MLB has announced the 2027 schedule, opening day February 19, but the league’s collective bargaining agreement expires December 1, 2026, and until a new deal is signed, those February dates are the plan, not a guarantee. The baseball side of Innings Festival carries the same asterisk; the concerts are a Live Nation event and the lineup is announced and on sale. Favor refundable flights and hotels for a late February baseball trip until the labor picture clears. Open week traffic stacks up in one corner. From February 11 to 14, the golf at TPC Scottsdale and the horse show at WestWorld run at the same time in the same part of north Scottsdale, and WestWorld lots double as Open parking. Build in time, use the tournament’s posted parking and shuttle plan, and do not schedule a tight dinner across town after a round. Parade day closes Old Town streets. On Saturday, February 6, arrive early for the Parada del Sol, expect Scottsdale Road closures through the morning, and know that the Concert in the Coliseum that night is across town at TPC, not in Old Town. And the Renaissance Festival drive backs up. US-60 east on festival Saturdays can crawl past Apache Junction. Gates open at 10 a.m.; be in the parking lot by 9:30, or go on Presidents Day Monday or a Sunday instead.

Keep planning

[AFFILIATE: hotels in Phoenix in February]

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