Strawberry Fest’s theme for June celebration: ‘A Berry, Big 250th’

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 23 February 2026 at 9:24 am

Festival welcomes patriotic themed floats for big parade

Photo by Tom Rivers: Becky Karls, Strawberry Festival Committee chairperson, is shown with The Turtle at the 2023 Amazing Turtle Race. This year’ s turtle race will have more tickets and prizes.

ALBION – The Albion Strawberry Festival has announced the theme for this year’s celebration on June 12-13: “A Berry, Big 250^th”

The 38^th annual festival wanted to tie in with the country’s 250^th anniversary. Becky Karls, the festival committee chairperson, urges parade participants to have patriotic floats for the June 13 parade.

The festival this year also is expanded the prizes and tickets for the amazing turtle race, where rubber turtles “race” a short distance on the Erie Canal. The turtles are all numbered from 1 to about 1,000. The top five have shared $1,000 in winnings.

This year the tickets will be expanded to 1,500 with 6 prizes. Each turtle will now have two tickets, one green and one yellow. There will be 750 turtles in the race. Every year there are a few turtle casualties, dropping the number of available turtles down from the original 1,000.

The prize money has been increased from $1,000 to $1,700. The new prize structure includes two $500 winners, two at $250 and two at $100.

The turtle race is a fundraiser for the festival. The tickets will remain at $5 each or 5 for $20. The race will be at 2 p.m. on June 13.

Karls said there is a hard-working committee that works on the festival. The group will welcome more volunteers as the festival gets closer.

The committee has leaders in charge of different aspects of the festival:

Business/Information/Raffle Vendors – Mark Johnson
Craft/Artisan/Farm Market Vendors – Trevor Thaine
Parade Participants – Mike Bonnewell
Food Booth Vendors – Jeff Holler
Family Fun Center – Taryn Moyle
Music/Bands Festival Performers – Bill Pileggi
School Royalty – Val Pettit
Sponsorships/Media – Marlene Seielstad
Turtle Race Tickets/Car Cruise In/Other Info–Festival Chairperson – Becky Karls

For more information, check the Strawberry Festival website.