One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
There's No Garden Grove Strawberry Festival This Year
Strawberries. (FRED TANNEAU/AFP/Getty Images)
For the first time in its 62-year history, the Garden Grove Strawberry Festival has been cancelled.
Scheduled for Memorial Day weekend, the three-day, volunteer-run event would have featured a parade, a carnival and free strawberry cake. It typically draws 250,000 people and raises $100,000 for local nonprofit organizations. But this year, organizers nixed the event because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Dawn Miller, donations chair for the event, has been with the festival for 34 years, and remembers some of the past celebrity guests.
"Mickey Rooney comes to mind. Ben Vereen. Pat Boone back in the day. Before me, I know there was Jayne Mansfield, Jimmy Durante and Steve Martin was our talent search winner in 1965," she said.
The theme for this year's parade was supposed to be "Celebrating the Olympics" and gold medal-winning diver Greg Louganis was slated to serve as Grand Marshall.
Organizers say the festival will return for Memorial Day weekend in 2021.
Our news is free on LAist. To make sure you get our coverage: Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter. To support our nonprofit public service journalism: Donate now.
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
