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.
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