Strawberry Festival will return June 10-11 after past 2 years cancelled
Photo by Tom Rivers: The White Sabers Drum and Bugle Corps from Dansville performs June 9, 2018 in the Albion Strawberry Festival.
ALBION – The Strawberry Festival will be back in June after the two previous festivals were cancelled due to Covid-19 concerns and restrictions on crowd size.
The festival will be back June 10-11 and should have the full gamut of activities – parade, food court, arts and crafts, live bands and music, classic car cruise-in, 5k and 8k races, turtle race and other vendors. (Last year the 5k and 8k race returned and there was a food truck rodeo.)
The festival this year will be called the Albion Rotary Strawberry Festival to highlight Rotary as the event’s long-time sponsor. The theme for the 34th festival will be “Together We Serve” and will highlight service clubs and volunteerism in the community.
Don Bishop, logistics chairman for the festival, said the planning committee is eager to bring back the festival. He is pleased some new members have joined the committee, which is led by June Persia. The Albion Lions Club also has several members on the planning committee, Bishop said.
More volunteers are welcome to join the committee and help organize the event. Committee chairs so far include Becky Karls for the turtle race and cruise in, Persia for arts and craft vendors, Bishop for the food court, Bill Pileggi for entertainment, Athena Nichols for student art contest, and McKenna Boyer for royalty. A chairperson is needed for the parade, Bishop said.
The committee next meets on Feb. 16 at 10 a.m. at the Hoag Library. For more information, check the Strawberry Festival website.
Sheryl Watts, owner and artistic designer of Air Raising Events, made a strawberry costume out of balloons in marched in the Strawberry Festival Parade on June 8, 2019, the last time the event was held.
