What to Know
- May 18 and 19, 2019
- Strawberry Meadows of College Park in Oxnard
- $12; $8 military and seniors, $5 kids ages 5-12
There are those festivals that just, you know, like... barely graze the theme.
They embrace their focus, to a point, but there isn't any going overboard, or going the distance, or getting overly whimsical or wacky with what the festival is about.
Straight from the "does not apply" column, and wearing a big ol' asterisk, is the California Strawberry Festival, which returns to Oxnard on Saturday, May 18 and Sunday, May 19.
For this is a festival that takes the idea of a strawberry and pushes it to the luscious limit via a host of strawberry-laden foodstuffs, contests, cooking demonstrations, and more.
Yes, this is the party where people show up in big hats covered in loads of faux strawberries, as if you needed more convincing on the "strawberries rule the school" front.
There's also the Tart Toss, which is delightfully self-explanatory, and self-make-a-mess-a-tory, too, and a pie-eating contest, and the Strawberry Baby Fashion Show.
The Scene
Want to find new things to do in Los Angeles? The Scene's lifestyle stories have you covered. Here's your go-to source on where the fun is across SoCal and for the weekend.
A Strawberry Smackdown puts chefs head-to-head, or rather stem-to-stem, as they try and fashion the most fruit-tastic foodstuffs, the kind of cuisine that wins big awards.
Vendors, too, will be serving all sorts of strawberry-topped, strawberry-cream'd, strawberry-soaked sweets, if that's your jam.
If. That's. Your. Jam.
Yes, jam jokes are allowed at the California Strawberry Festival. Allowed and encouraged.
Don't be jelly that we went there.
Twirlly, wheee-inducing rides, interesting stuff to look at, intriguing things to engage with, and some 200 or so arts & crafts vendors will further fill out the off-the-vine time.
Tickets? Parking? Free shuttles? These are the matters you should consider before you toodle for Oxnard.
Get all of your strawberry-scented details now, before one of our state's best-known fruit festivities makes everything within view somehow related to the famous seed-sweet, red-bright berry.
