Let flavor of summer begin with Strawberry Days Festival
GROVE CITY — After being delayed for a year because of the pandemic, the Grove City Strawberry Days Festival will celebrate its 30th anniversary Friday to Sunday.
A summer staple in the area, the Strawberry Days Festival is scheduled the second weekend in June each year.
The 2021 festival will be similar to those of years' past, with local entertainment playing all three days and nonprofit vendors set up throughout Grove City Memorial Park.
“It kicks off the summer,” said Mary Kay Mattocks, festival event chairwoman. “It's an opportunity to go to a festival and enjoy the outdoors.”
The biggest difference this year will be that all the vendors will not be under the large tent that usually is put up.
“You will not see the big circus tent this year,” Mattocks said. “We're going to pray real hard we'll have no rain.”
To celebrate the 30th anniversary, Mattocks said members of the original festival committee from 1991 have been invited back.
Mary Ann Collins, one of the original committee members, said that the festival was started as a way to help downtown businesses and showcase local artists.“It was at a time when they were beginning to think about revitalization,” Collins recalled. “We already had the Grove City Street Fair at the end of August, but that was designed to help the merchants on Broad Street unload end-of-season merchandise.”Collins, who owned Collins Shoes on Broad Street at the time, said a number of business owners got together one day following a chamber of commerce meeting and talked about starting a new event at the beginning of summer.“There were many of us that felt like there was another activity needed to be held to highlight the wealth of artistry the community had,” Collins said. “(Artists were) supporting our establishments, but they couldn't really get their names in front of the public locally. They had to (look) out of town.”At the time, Collins believed that the closest arts festival was the Three Rivers Arts Festival in Pittsburgh.
The committee knew that there had to be more to the festival than art, however.“If you bring people downtown, you have to feed them,” Collins said. “But we didn't invite any for-profit vendors, only nonprofit food vendors.”With the plan starting to take form, all that was left was a theme for the festival.“Corn comes to fruition later in the season, and we didn't want to compete with the street fair,” Collins said. “We were looking for a theme that fit earlier in the summer.”The festival adopted the name Strawberry Arts and Music Festival because it was going to be held at the beginning of June, the peak of strawberry season, and because Charles Hamilton, a local farmer, had strawberries to sell.The first Strawberry Arts and Music Festival was held in 1991 right on Broad Street in downtown Grove City. Artists and crafters set up tables in front of the local businesses on the street.
Collins said that first festival was a smash success. So many people came that the entire event was quickly moved onto Grove City College's campus for more space.“We were surprised at the local support,” Collins said. “The first couple of years it was greatly supported by the community.”The festival continued to grow over the years, eventually drawing interest from outside the community as well.At the turn of the century, Grove City College told the committee it planned to erect buildings in the area, and the festival was moved again, this time to Grove City Memorial Park, where it still is held today.Collins, 76, has not been on the festival committee since the early 2000s, but still attends as much as she can. A lifelong Grove City resident, Collins said she has only missed going to the festival twice.Even after 30 years, Mattocks said that Strawberry Days, which is free to all attendees, still is a great way for families to begin the summer.“People enjoy kicking off the summer with something that doesn't cost anything and where they can see all of their friends,” Mattocks said. “We pay for all of that, so the kids can have that done for free.”“It's an opportunity to see people you know and rekindle friendships,” Collins added. “And there are always the Amish doughnuts to try.”
