*2011 Garden Grove Strawberry FestivalNEW

THE GARDEN GROVE STRAWBERRY FESTIVAL CELEBRATES ITS 53rd YEAR!
The Garden Grove Strawberry Festival is not only one of the largest community festivals in the western US, but also one of the oldest. On its golden anniversary the festival's non-profit board of directors (one of whom, Jack Wallin, has been a director since it started) takes a look back at a half-century filled with redheads, record-breaking strawberry shortcake, star-studded parades, helicopter rides and even a circus and rodeo.

Date
May 27-30, 2011

Times
Friday (11am to 10pm)
Sat & Sun (10am to 10pm)
Monday (10am to 9pm)

Costs
Admission is Free!
Carnival Ride Ticket Bargains Available!

Background
In 1958, The Garden Grove Chamber of Commerce put on the first Garden Grove Strawberry Festival as a way to bring together the east and west sides of Garden Grove. Resident Tom Hoxie, a public relations professional, suggested a festival to celebrate the area's then prolific strawberry fields. That first festival was held on a vacant lot in the Brookhurst Triangle, an area bordered by Garden Grove Blvd., Brookhurst St., and Brookhurst Way. And Hoxie, true to his profession, sent locally grown strawberries to a monastery in Europe -- the festival's first PR ploy.

When the Chamber decided not to hold a strawberry festival the following year, a group of citizens formed a non-profit organization, the Garden Grove Strawberry Festival Association, and moved the festival to Garden Grove Park where there was more parking.

The festival became and has always been a charitable event benefiting local organizations. In the past 50 years over $4.5 million has been donated to hundreds of non-profits. While many have mistakenly believed the festival is part of the City of Garden Grove, it is in fact a totally separate non-profit organization which has raised money for numerous city projects, as well as the city's police and fire departments. Festival profits have built the amphitheater seating, two showmobiles, the children's wing of the central library, a police command post, the twin towers in Atlantis Park, and a building for the Garden Grove Boys and Girls Club. The board provides scholarships annually and supports local schools. Charities such as Kiwanisland, homeless and abuse shelters and children's non-profits have greatly benefited. Service groups, who are the only ones allowed to sell food at the festival, also raise many thousands for their organizations, often enough to fund all their events for the year.

The 1959 Garden Grove Strawberry Festival was the first to include a parade, and had as its grand marshal silent movie matinee idol Francis X. Bushman. There were no other celebrities in the parade, nor were there floats or bands, as there are today. The parade consisted simply of a line of antique cars that motored down Brookhurst St. to Westminster Blvd.

On the festival grounds visitors enjoyed carnival rides and strolled long row of booths where they could buy a wide array of strawberry treats, fresh strawberries, other food and merchandise. A hang glider pulled by an airplane was hired to swoop over the festivities but when the big day came, it was so windy a car had to pull it instead. Hoxie's friend, Woody Williams, had a helicopter so it was also enlisted to give excited riders an aerial view of the festival grounds.

'We even brought in a circus in those days,' recalls Jack Wallin. It was a DeWayne Brothers Circus and featured famous musician Big Tiny Little in the Big Tent. 'The newspaper wanted a photo of a board member near the lions cage,' he laughingly remembers, 'and I volunteered. The photographer told me to get up on the cage trailer for a better shot, then as a joke someone prodded the lion with a pole and he let a huge roar. I took off so fast and I don't think I stopped running until I reached Westminster!'

In 1959 Hoxie came up with the idea for the first Red-Head Roundup contest, which is still an annual festival event. Today prizes are awarded in eight redhead categories of baby, toddler, cutest, teen, prettiest, classiest, red head with the most freckles, and Strawberry Blond Image. In earlier contests prizes went to the curliest, tallest, best crew cut and prettiest redheads, as well as the Largest Redheaded Family and the Best Redhead Smile. The Berry, Berry Beautiful Baby contest, Strawberry Idol Karaoke contest and the competition for Tiny Tots King and Queen were added later and remain today.

Schedule
http://www.strawberryfestival.org/events.htm