The huge 'Golden State' of California has ample opportunities for sweepstakes and contests—too numerous to list. Here are are few listings of some of the most popular.

Arts and Crafts: Engage your creative side at an arts and crafts festival. Find general listings at the California Festival Guide (https://www.californiafestivalguide.com/eventSearch.php#.U3qoTdJdVxk) and PacificFineArts.com, https://www.craftmasternews.com/california.aspx, https://www.art-a-fair.com/, https://www.art-a-fair.com/location.asp and regional listings at the LA Art Show site (https://www.laartshow.com/), Art Los Angeles (https://artlosangelesfair.com/) and Art Market San Francisco (https://artmarketsf.com/).

Beauty Pageants: There are beauty pageants for different age groups and both genders listed below:

• Miss California is the preliminary to the Miss America contest (https://www.misscalifornia.org.php54-2.dfw1-1.websitetestlink.com/)


• Miss CA USA (https://www.misscausapageant.com/)


• Gold Coast Pageants (https://www.goldcoastpageants.com/): This one has traditional pageants plus many optional categories for young entrants.


• California Kisses Animal Rescue (https://www.californiakissesbeautypageant.com/): Pageantry, prizes and all profits go to animal rescue.


• California's Our Little Miss (https://www.caolm.com/)


• Find general listings at the state's Pageant Center page (https://pageantcenter.com/pageant_calendar/california_pageants.html#.U3qrA9JdVxk).

Food and Wine: If you can dream it up, the Golden State probably has a food festival for it. Find monthly listings at Californiafairsandfestivals.com, California is known for its wine country with festivals celebrating this heritage. Find festivals throughout the state at californiawinefestival.com, Nightout (https://nightout.com/events/california-wine-festival-orange-county/tickets#.U3qrp9JdVxk), the California Jazz Wine Fest (https://californiajazzwine.com/), and See Monterey (https://www.seemonterey.com/events/food-wine/ca-wine-festival/).

Magazines: Enjoy Magazine covers Northern Californian lifestyle and events. The website has a sweepstakes listing page at https://www.enjoymagazine.net/search?q=contest.

Media: The television stations NBC Southern California (https://www.nbclosangeles.com/on-air/contests/), CBS 8 (https://www.cbs8.com/category/200644/cbs-8-contests, California Music Channel (https://www.cmc-tv.com/contest.htm), KUSI News San Diego (https://www.kusi.com/category/202054/contests) and CBS Sacramento (https://sacramento.cbslocal.com/category/contests/) all have pages with local contest listings.

State Fair: Competition categories at the California state fair include adult and children's arts/crafts, cooking and industrial and technology. There are also livestock and wine and beer crafting competitions. Learn more at the state fair website (https://www.castatefair.org/, https://www.calexpo.com/).

Travel: The tourism website Visit California (https://www.visitcalifornia.com/sweepstakes) has occasional sweepstakes listings.

Good luck!