Every year for thirty two years on the last Saturday in June the Strawberry Festival fills the heart of South Berwick with entertainment, food, artisans and strawberry shortcakes.    The festival is run by volunteers and provides an opportunity for local non-profit organizations to raise funds at booths and by selling food to support their important work in the community.

This year adds one more successful festival to the history of South Berwick.  Here are some views of the festival.

Trolleys provide transportation to the festival from points all around the town.  For children, the trolley ride is their first adventure of the festival.

lll

First stop for us, and judging by the line, many others was the ATM adjacent to Central School.  The Strawberry Festival brings in revenue for a wide variety of nonprofit organizations that nonprofits give back to the town in the services and programs they provide.

First things first:  Strawberry Shortcake!  There was quite a line but it moved quickly.  The organizers of the Strawberry Festival could make some money offering tips to fast food restaurants, where I’ve often waited longer for my food with no one in line in front of me.

Serving up this much strawberry shortcake looks like a lot of work.  But from what I’ve heard, what we see on the day of the festival is just the tip of the iceberg and only gives a glimpse of all the volunteer time, energy, and care that goes into the day.

The big payoff:  Good old fashioned strawberry shortcake with real whipped cream and cake that’s not too sweet.  The whole area was filled with the sweet smell of strawberries and lots of contented shortcake eaters.

Then on to the vendors, who offer an array of handcrafts and Maine made products to please everyone and they were a big draw.

One of South Berwick’s local businesses, Little Hat Company was there and doing a brisk business in strawberry hats.

One of the things that makes the Strawberry Festival so much fun are the small touches that show the care that the organizers put into make the festival a delight in every detail.  This whimsical giant balloon man enlivened the area near the shortcake tent.

And one of my favorite touches was Binx the goat, who held court near the Central School Stage.  Binx used to work at the Portsmouth Music Hall (actually it was his owner who worked there, Binx just helped out.)  Binx has since gone on to have quite a career as a celebrity goat.  He even has his own web site where you can see baby pictures and some of the interesting things he’s done.

We were there in the morning so got to hear Women of Note, an a capella group.   It is amazing what the human voice can do.  They performed a great selection of songs with interesting arrangements that made the most of their voices.

On the food court stage we enjoyed the Northern Explosion Cloggers who strutted their stuff to a lively assortment of music.

Then there was the food court.   Pancakes, muffins, sausages, cookies, fried dough, cotton candy, barbecued chicken, hot dogs, hamburgers, french fries and more, much more.   The food court was a lively place with festival goers going from one booth to another to sample the treats.

I have to say that the South Berwick Fire Department’s barbecue tent won my award for the best aroma.

Booths for nonprofit organizations offered a chance to learn about the work of the many great local organizations.

South Berwick Rod and Gun Association

Friends of the South Berwick Library

Community Chorus at South Berwick

Great Works Regional Land Trust

Children’s Leadership Council

Old Berwick Historical Society

and there were more.  For those I missed, my apologies and I’ll get you next year.

For children there were so many wonderful activities.  One of the entertainment choices was Wildlife Encounters that attracted a sea of children to see their unusual animals.

Meet one of the animals brought by Wildlife Encounters.  This is Frodo:

Despite her looks, Frodo is a gentle giant who was most interested in eating all the weeds in the lawn.  She was quite an attraction.

There were things to bounce and slide in…

climb…

and fling… This was at the South Berwick Free Baptist Church booth.

All around it was a wonderful event.

What did you enjoy about it?

Tags: South Berwick Strawberry Festival, strawberry festival, things to do

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 28th, 2008 at 4:04 pm and is filed under Good Things. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.