Maryfest gearing up for this year's Strawberry Festival

Volunteers for the Marysville Strawberry Festival put some of the finishing touches on this year’s float as preparations are underway to bring the festival back this summer.

Most of the traditional parts of the festival will be back this year, along with some returning events that haven’t been seen in a while.

Maryfest, the local organization that runs the Strawberry Festival, said they are glad to be able to hold the event again this year.

“Everywhere we go people say they are excited for the festival to be back, as are we,” said Gail Frost, Maryfest president.

The three mainstays of the festival, the carnival, the downtown market and the grand parade, will all return this June.

The carnival is scheduled to begin on June 16 and last until June 19.

At Asbery Field a number of vendors will set up as part of the annual festival market. It will be open 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. on June 17, 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on June 18 and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on June 19.

The Twilight Grand Parade will again go down State Avenue with a start time of about 7:45 p.m. on that Saturday, June 18.

Returning this year will be the trike races which have been absent from the festival for many years.

Various teams will compete with tricycle racers through an obstacle course up and down Third Street on June 16, starting at 6 p.m.

“It’s just hilarious,” said Frost. “There’s obstacles they have to make their way around."

The race is being organized by the owner of the downtown 5 Rights Brewing Company.

“[The owner] is really excited about it and got talking to a lot of people at his bar with people who remember it,” said Frost.

Previously, businesses would have to bring their own tricycle, but now the Strawberry Festival has two which they will provide to participants and have them race in heats.

“In the past the businesses made them and it became very expensive to make them, and that is probably why the event wasn’t held anymore,” said Frost.

A golf tournament organized by the Marysville Tulalip Chamber of Commerce will kick off the event.

“Years ago the Chamber of Commerce used to run the festival,” but eventually Maryfest took over all the responsibilities, said Frost.

This year the chamber offered to organize a part of it and decided to bring back the golf tournament that used to be a part of the festival.

This year the annual Berry Run will be held on State Avenue before the parade. Frost said the race organizer hoped to bring it to State Avenue this year instead of the separate courses it had previously been on.

“It will be a test to see how well it goes, because we’ll be up there preparing the beginning of the parade,” said Frost.

In addition to their normal scholarships for their Royalty, Maryfest will provide a new scholarship to highlight a local youth volunteer.

“We will offer it this year for a student who does a lot of service for the community,” said Frost. “Since we just became a 501(c)(3) organization we talked about that as something we wanted to do.”

This year there is a fourth member of the Royalty who will serve as an alternate to fill in when other Royalty members are unavailable.

“You’ve got the three spots on the float and if one girl is sick do you take two or do you take none? It would look funny if they’re only on one side,” said Frost.

Royalty member Ziri Morales is this year’s alternate and will still walk alongside the float in events she isn’t on it.

Other returning events include the annual Fashion Show and Luncheon, which serves as a fundraiser for the organization’s scholarships. That will be held on June 14 at noon.

Events that aren’t scheduled to return this year include the Kids Day, the Talent Show, the Kiddies Parade and the Car Show.

Frost said she hopes the Kiddies Parade will return in the future.

“That costs us a lot of money because we didn’t charge anybody anything and the people who used to organize it left Maryfest,” she said.

The organization as a whole has lost a lot of organizing experience over the last couple of years.

“Trying to get a festival back up is interesting,” said Frost. “People leave as they have lost interest during the two years of not having a festival."

She noted that many other festivals in the state are having similar problems.

“The person who is running the parade, it is her first year organizing it, although thankfully Carol Kapua, who organized it for years, is advising her,” said Frost.

As the festival nears the organization hopes to attract more volunteers as well.

“We will need a lot of help that week,” said Frost. “Not right now, but when we start getting more organized for that [festival] week we will need volunteers to help out at the tricycle race and that Saturday."

If people would like to become involved with Strawberry Festival they can call 360-659-7664 or email [email protected].