The Garden Grove Strawberry Festival is an event for the entire family and a top choice
if you like strawberries. Held each year on Memorial Day weekend, there are
plenty of strawberries to go around.
Up on the Central Coast just 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 folks
certainly have their pick of the crop on this weekend. In addition to
strawberries, another event,
National
Orange Show Festival serves up another beloved fruit in
Riverside County. If Memorial Weekend offers a glimpse into the hot summer
days, Californians won't be going hungry or wanting for meals.
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 makes it an ideal
escape from the theme park for a few hours of fun while you're wandering
around Anaheim and
its neighbor city, Garden Grove.
What's so special about the delicious,
red berries picked fresh from the fields? Their sweet flavor makes them a
consumer favorite. In fact, California's strawberries are quite popular
around the globe, but because of their short shelf life, they are normally
flown to their destinations. While we Californians like to think about our
beaches and other assets, places such as Japan thinks of California as the
place where they get their strawberries from, for one.
At the Garden Grove event, the atmosphere
is like a scaled down fair. There are mostly kiddie carnival rides, plus a
few adult thrill rides. There's a fairway, food booths and homespun
entertainment with beauty queens, singers, dance acts and the usual stuff.
In addition to strawberry pie eating contests, the highlight of the event
are the strawberry shortcake plates served to thousands of people. Community
organizations serve up the berries on pieces of sweet, white cake, topping
the dessert with canned whipped cream topping. It is delicious, and not
fattening. NO! No way can whipped cream and sugary desserts be fattening,
right?
Where to stay: You are in luck!
Garden Grove offers many family hotels. With close proximity to
Disneyland parks, there are nearly 200 hotels within a five to ten mile
distance of the Strawberry Festival. Awesome! Some of the local favorites
include: The
Holiday Inn Garden Grove is fairly new. It opened in 2003. When I
checked a month early for Memorial Weekend, they showed availability under
$100 (subject to change...always!) Another value when I looked to book was
the
Hampton Inn. It also was under $100. I chose
Hyatt Regency hotel in Garden Grove because Hyatt has the firm bed
that I need, so I was especially to surprised to find the room there costing
only $124, plus $15 parking. I grabbed that room, because just down the road
a few miles,
Huntington Beach Hyatt was charging $275, plus $25 parking; over in
Long Beach the Hyatt was sold out;
Newport Beach Hyatt was $215, plus $16 parking fees.
Location: Near downtown Garden
Grove at Main Street and Euclid.
"A Tradition Since 1958" Four fun filled
days of festivities with the largest community parade on the
West Coast. 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. strawberryfestival.org.
