\n\tIt's that time of year again.<\/p>\n

\n\tWell, almost.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Garden Grove Strawberry Festival — the biggest event in Garden Grove and one of the biggest in Orange County — is scheduled for May 23-26 at Village Green, between Euclid and Main streets in downtown Garden Grove.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis year's them is "Honoring Our Exceptional Educators."<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n\tIt's that time of year again.<\/p>\n

\n\tWell, almost.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Garden Grove Strawberry Festival — the biggest event in Garden Grove and one of the biggest in Orange County — is scheduled for May 23-26 at Village Green, between Euclid and Main streets in downtown Garden Grove.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis year's them is "Honoring Our Exceptional Educators."<\/p>\n

\n\tParade organizer Judy Cooper has not announced a grand marshal or celebrities who will participate in the festival, but, per usual, she's working on it and announcements will be made in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

\n\tPast celebrities include Ben Vereen, Pat Boone, Billy Barty, Gene Hackman, Shirley Jones and a host of others.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat about Steve Martin, the most famous person ever to grow up in Garden Grove? Nope, but that's another story. Let's just say organizers have tried.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis year's festival — the 56th one — will feature the usual the fun: a parade, rides, games, contests, vendor booths and, of course, fresh and delicious strawberries.<\/p>\n

\n\tAdmission is free. Unlimited access to rides costs about $25-30. Hours are 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\n\tStarted in 1958, the Garden Grove Chamber of Commerce put on the first Garden Grove Strawberry Festival as a way to bring together the east and west sides of Garden Grove. Resident Tom Hoxie, a public relations professional, suggested a festival to celebrate the area’s then prolific strawberry fields. That first festival was held on a vacant lot in the Brookhurst Triangle, an area bordered by Garden Grove Boulevard, Brookhurst Street and Brookhurst Way. And Hoxie, true to his profession, sent locally grown strawberries to a monastery in Europe — the festival’s first PR ploy.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen the chamber decided not to hold a strawberry festival the following year, a group of citizens formed a non-profit organization, the Garden Grove Strawberry Festival Association, and moved the festival to Garden Grove Park where there was more parking.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe festival became and has always been a charitable event benefiting local organizations. In the past 50 years, more than $4.5 million has been donated to hundreds of non-profits.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor more information about this year's festival, or to volunteer or donate, call 714-638-0981 or visit  info@strawberryfestival.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It's that time of year again. Well, almost. The Garden Grove Strawberry Festival — the biggest event in Garden Grove and one of the biggest in Orange County — is scheduled for May 23-26 at Village Green, between Euclid and Main streets in downtown Garden Grove. This year's them is "Honoring Our Exceptional Educators."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":720,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3245],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4232,"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719\/revisions\/4232"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}