Trending
BUCKHANNON -- A more subdued West Virginia Strawberry Festival will be bringing some "berry spirit" back to Buckhannon this year.
The 79th West Virginia Strawberry Festival -- postponed from 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic -- will take place this May with some major events missing.
There will be no parades this year and, as of this time, Gambill Amusements is not planning to set up its carnival due to the CDC pandemic rules.
But the West Virginia Strawberry Festival Association board of directors hopes to have an event that the community can enjoy safely and showcase the theme "Home is Where the Strawberries Are."
"We voted the other night as an executive board to present to the City of Buckhannon and our regular board of visitors that we have to downsize," board member Debra Hupp told The Inter-Mountain. "We are downsizing the festival big time."
"We have had meetings with the local health department," she said. "They have made contact with the state health department. Due to the CDC rules and regulations, as of Monday night we have canceled all parades.
"They gave us a lot of guidelines. If we were bringing groups in, they had to pass certain criteria from providing us with a three-day-out negative COVID-19 test to providing us with their shot records that shows they have their COVID-19 vaccine."
The exact events and timeline are still being developed, but the majority of the events will be Friday, May 14 and Saturday, May 15.
Tentatively, Strawberry Idol will still take place at the Upshur County Courthouse plaza on the evenings of Thursday, May 13, Friday, May 14 and Saturday, May 15. There may also be events on Sunday.
"We are still looking to do as many outside activities that we can space people out," she said. "We are downsizing the street parties."
Main Street will not be closed for a street party on Friday night, but Jawbone Park will be the location of entertainment.
Jawbone and the surrounding area will also become the home of the food vendors and crafters who will be relocating from North Spring Street due to construction on North Spring Street.
"We think it will be a little more convenient for people," she said. "The city has been working hand in hand with us to try to make everything safe and make a nice event down there."
A coronation will be held and the festival is planning to host pageants for Junior Royalty and Teen and Queen pre-festival, but no dates have been announced.
"The pageants will be happening," Hupp said.
Any strawberry growers interested in applying to be Strawberry King should contact the WVU Upshur County Extension office for an application.
"Strawberry growers will be here to do their strawberry auction on that Friday," she said. "The West Virginia Department of Agriculture will have the growers here to do the auction and the sale of their berries and plants."
A car show on Main Street may happen that Saturday and there will be live music from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. with Main Street closed. There will be two stages on Main Street.
"The health and welfare of the community and our festival-goers is our first priority," she said. "We are trying to keep the tradition going, but safely. We are downsizing to keep everyone's safety in mind."
The festival normally receives about $17,000 from the state of West Virginia and is awaiting that funding.
"So far, we haven't received that funding for this year's festival," she said. "Strawberry lives on sponsorships and donations. That is why we do our membership drive. Any donations and sponsorships we can get are always greatly appreciated."
Since last year, the festival moved its office off Main Street to save money and now rents a room in the American Legion building.
"Due to last year's cancellation of everything, we have lost numerous sponsors and funding," she said. "We are struggling financially wise. We want to continue to have a down-sized celebration for the 79th Strawberry Festival."
The sponsors who donated last year will be rolled over to this year for their events that are happening.
Donations may be sent to the West Virginia Strawberry Festival Association P.O Box 117, Buckhannon, WV 26201.
It has been a hard year for the strawberry festival volunteers who normally work all year long to plan for the next year's festival and beyond.
Hupp said, "When we canceled everything last year, we got very little support from the community. Everyone kept saying we should have it. According to the CDC, there was no way we could have done it and felt safe and secure about allowing people to come out to our event.
"A lot of people forgot last year we were a week and a half away from our pageants and we had to cancel everything. We all shed a few tears. You have to take a deep breath and get your bearings and try to look forward to the future to make things as best as you possible can and keep those traditions going."
For 2021, the association made plans for a regular full-blown festival, but also realized they still had to go by the CDC rules.
"When they gave us our list of rules that we had to follow, we just did not feel it was safe enough to bring the public out for these big events," Hupp said. "Really, they told us we had to be the ones to police the events ourselves (regarding social distancing)."
Despite the full-blown event not happening, the board hopes people will still decorate their yards with strawberry spirit, and strawberry decorations will come out downtown.
"I've always said as soon as the warm weather and the flowers start popping up, the wooden strawberries start appearing in the yards," Hupp said. "They are ready to bring on the festival.
"We are hoping the berry fairies will still do the painting of the intersections to keep the strawberry theme going."
Anyone wanting to volunteer can get in touch with board members or message the West Virginia Strawberry Festival page on Facebook.