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OXNARD STRAWBERRY FESTIVAL
Outdoor Family Entertainment Celebration on California
Coast
Strawberries,
strawberries, strawberries. Red, ripe, chocolate dipped, caramel creamed,
Kahlua drenched, shortcake and whipped cream. There
are many places in the world that grow strawberries. I hear Chile even
has a few. A strawberry festivals can be found around and about, including
motorcycles in the California Sierras. But the region of the southern
California coast along Highway 101 between LA and Ventura is known as
the “Strawberry Coast”. Familiar fields of green low plants
in deep straight arrow rows, covered in plastic in the cool season, appear
in red ripe baskets in the spring. May is the pinnacle of California
strawberry season and for 25 years Oxnard, the capital of the strawberry
coast has been celebrating the delicious, sensuous true love fruit.
The California Strawberry Festival in Oxnard, California
is held on a weekend in the middle of every May at the Strawberry Meadows
of College
Park in Oxnard. One of the top outdoor festivals in the U.S. where music
mixes with the red magical fruit served in every imaginable concoction,
a fun-packed sweet family tradition. 2008 celebrates the California Strawberry
Festival’s 25th Anniversary on May 17 & 18. The music headliners
for the anniversary years are the raucous jumping beat of LA local favorites
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and the E Family with Shiela E. Aside from the music
entertainment, the festival features the Strawberry Promenade with cooking
and berry decorating demonstrations, three hundred
Arts & Crafts booths, the world-famous Budweiser Clydesdales will
be clopping around and Strawberryland For Kids offers rides and attractions,
gooey contests and the Star Berry Hunt, to keep the sugar-hypered young
ones from exploding.
Oxnard is located 60 miles north of Los Angeles and 30 miles south of
Santa Barbara. Getting close to the festival grounds with a car can be
an adventure, but free Park & Ride “Strawberry Express” shuttles
can be had from parking locations off the 101 Freeway. Or stay off the
highway and take the train. Amtrak keeps with the green theme with a
special Festival weekend “Kids Ride Free” promotion (shuttles
meet the trains). A train ticket from Los Angeles’ Union Station
to Oxnard runs about $17. On site parking at Strawberry Meadows of College
Park 3250 S. Rose Avenue in Oxnard, is free.
General admission for adults is $12, seniors 60 and over $8 and children
aged from 5-12 are $5. Children 4 and under are free. Active military
and dependents with ID are $8. Special VIP tickets can be purchased in
advance. Hours are 10:00a.m. to 6:30p.m. both days. Advance tickets can
be purchased via the website at www.strawberry-fest.org.
Don’t eat for about three days before, because you’ll need
space for eponymous delicacies from strawberry kabobs to strawberry pizza
and even strawberry beer from over fifty and beverage booths. Take home
berries fresh from the field and take a towel if you have a taste for “in
your face” entertainment, prepared for a messy encounter with the
strawberry tart toss, pie eating contest and strawberry stomp! © Bargain
Travel West
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Strawberry Festival
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