‘America’s Arabia’: Dates, a desert town, and a county fair

This Indio, California, fair is pure Americana – corn dogs, rides, demolition derby, face painters who can turn a child’s cheeks into butterfly wings. For 10 days in February, the desert city fairground glows with candy-colored lights while the wind flicks American flags.

But walk toward the heart of the hubbub, past the smoke of sizzling turkey legs, and the scene transforms.

What looks like a minaret rising tall among the palms is part of an outdoor stage. It’s meant to conjure long-ago Baghdad – or what a Hollywood set designer in the 1940s envisioned as such. Here, Coachella Valley locals have long paid tribute to the origins of a local cash crop, the date, by performing pageants loosely tied to tales in “.” The half-hour version of “Aladdin” this year was based on the 1992 Disney film.