Garden Grove Strawberry Festival

California Festivals

Garden Grove Strawberry Festival

Memorial Weekend May 24-27, 2024

Village Green, between Euclid and Main Street Streets
Garden Grove, CA
strawberryfestival.org

Grand Marshals 2023: Vera Jimenez & Tony Adkins

Friday 1-10 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Monday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Admission is free
Carnival: Butler Amusements

Friday, May 27, 2022

4 p.m. Tiny Tots King & Queen Contest
6 p.m. Strawberry Cake Cutting Ceremony with Free strawberry shortcake served to all who attend.

Saturday

8 a.m. VIP Breakfast at Garden Grove Community Center, 11300 Stanford Avenue. Open to the public. Local dignitaries, parade celebrities, Miss Garden Grove and Miss Outstanding Teen and their courts introduced. Scrambled eggs, pancakes, sausage, fried potatoes, milk, orange juice and coffee. $9 paid at the door
10 a.m. Parade Starts at 9th and Chapman Streets
12:30 p.m. Celebrity autograph signing
1-8 p.m. Live Music
7 p.m. Strawberry Idol Karaoke Contest

Sunday

11 a.m. Berry Berry Beautiful Baby Contest
1-8 p.m. Live Music
7 p.m. Miss Garden Grove and Friends

Monday

11 a.m. Redhead Roundup Contest
12-7 p.m. Live Music
3 p.m. Foundations Dance Co.

A Tradition Since 1958, enjoy four fun filled days of festivities with the largest community parade on the West Coast. Parade starts Saturday at 10 a.m. on Chapman at 9th Street, heads toward Euclid, where it turns and goes just past Lampson.

The four-day event, which is the second largest city festival in the Western United States, is held at the Village Green between Main Street and Euclid Avenue in downtown Garden Grove. Attendance is over 300,000. Highlights include the Friday evening official giant strawberry cake cutting ceremony at 6 p.m. at the Showmobile (Acacia & Main streets) when free cake is served to over 2,000 people. Saturday morning is an 8:30 a.m. VIP celebrity breakfast at the Garden Grove Community Center, with proceeds going to We Give Thanks, followed by a parade which starts at 10 a.m. with floats, bands, equestrians and characters such as Knott's Berry Farm's Snoopy. Many film and TV celebrities will be honored in the parade. All four festival days will include 35 carnival rides, 5 contests, over 200 food and sales booths, games, music and live entertainment in the amphitheater and Showmobile. Contests, held in the festival's 550-seat amphitheater include the Berry, Berry Beautiful Baby Contest, Redhead Roundup, Strawberry Idol Karaoke, and Tiny Tots King and Queen.

Garden Grove Strawberry Festival is the event to attend if you love sweet, delicious strawberries. There are still fields remaining that grow strawberries in Orange County, though California's Central Coast produces more strawberries commercially now as the Southern California urban growth has caused most fields to disappear.

At this event, there are hundreds of thousands of delicious, ripe strawberries served in shortcakes and tasty foods served during the Memorial Weekend.

A mere 230 miles distance is another popular Strawberry Festival in Arroyo Grande. There are plenty of strawberries to go around at both events and you can have your pick of the crop on this weekend.

Garden Grove's Strawberry Festival follows after several popular events, the Santa Maria Strawberry Festival in April, and Oxnard Strawberry Festival in May. The Garden Grove event appeals to mostly a local audience, but its close proximity to Disneyland and dates (always on Memorial Weekend) makes for a great escape and head-start on a summer vacation.

Garden Grove, named for the groves of oranges that once filled the air with sweet smells, does contain a few strawberry fields and patches today.

Kiddie carnival rides, adult thrill rides, a fairway, food booths and homespun entertainment with beauty queens, singers, dance acts and contests provide for truly a community atmosphere in the heart of an urban area.

Strawberry pie eating contest is one of the most colorful, messy, and most fun events--certainly a highlight. If you don't enter the competition, be sure to buy some strawberry desserts. Purchases often support community organizations and causes. Shortcake is the yellow or white cake, topped with fresh, whole strawberries (or cut pieces) and whipped cream topping.

All proceeds going to local charities, scholarships and non profit organizations. Large carnival with several thrilling rides. Almost 200 vendors selling products of all sorts. Crafts fair, beautiful baby contest, the worlds largest strawberry short cake, with over 250,000 people attending the four day event.

Events are not guaranteed. It is your responsibility to confirm before going.

California Festivals