Aside from the berries, like these for sale at last year’s event, the Arroyo Grande Strawberry Festival will offer entertainment and food.
Correction 5/23/08• An information summary on Page 17 of Thursday’s Ticket gave an incorrect start time for the Arroyo Grande Strawberry Festival. The festival starts at 9 a. m. Saturday and Sunday, not 10.
This weekend, families can enjoy a sweet sampling of summer fun at Arroyo Grande’s Strawberry Festival, which turns 25 this year.
For eight years, Bob Lund has been director of the event that began as a traditional “ice cream social” in the Village, the city’s historic center, he said.
Today, the event remains the sole moneymaker for the Village Improvement Association, which is responsible for everything from the potted trees and plants in the Village to the annual Fourth of July celebration, said Vivian Krug, publicity director.
Thousands are expected to flock to the two-day festival that celebrates what used to be a staple of Arroyo Grande’s growing fields.
This year the fest will kick off with the Festival Carnival at 3 p. m. Friday. Strawberry pancake breakfasts will be held from 9 to 11 a. m. on Saturday and Sunday, and the 22nd annual Strawberry Stampede is set for 8 a. m. Sunday.
A major attraction is the continuous free live entertainment on 10 stages, featuring a host of genres of music from rock, blues and jazz to Spanish guitar and reggae.
This is the third year that ’60s tribute band Unfinished Business will play. Lead singer/guitarist Ed Miller says the festival offers “a lot of excitement, a lot of people” and a festive atmosphere that the band’s style of rock and roll adds to.
Unfinished Business plays “the great hits by artists ranging from the Animals to the Zombies and including The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, the various Motown artists, and many more,” he said.
“We think it’s the best music of all time,” Miller said. “The influence on contemporary music by music from the ’60s is unmistakable. That’s why we’ve decided to specialize in it, as a kind of tribute to all that great music.”
Miller and three of his band mates rocked through the 1960s.
“We started playing music (then) in bands,” he said. “We saw it first-hand ... and never really got it out of our system. We got hooked on it when we were young. That’s where we got the name of the band—continuing to play music is ‘Unfinished Business.’ ”
Miller said that their fan base is growing: The local band now plays gigs from Carmel to Los Angeles.
“We’re enjoying that our boundaries kind of expanding,” he said. “We attribute that to some extent to events like the Strawberry Festival where people from out of town come to hear the band.”
Other kinds of entertainment will include belly dancers, a dog trick show and “a high-speed painter who paints to music,” according to festival organizers.
There will be more than 60 food booths, featuring Greek, Italian, Thai and many other varieties of cuisine. And remember to leave room for your favorite fruit-themed dessert.
And of course there will be plenty of strawberry treats for sale— strawberry shortcake, strawberry cheesecake, and, of course, whole fresh strawberries.
Shoppers will find about 160 arts-and-crafts vendors, and 200 commercial vendors.
There will also be a variety of carnival rides in the Village Green, the area south of Nelson Street between Green and Mason streets.
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