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Strawberry Days are here again

Carrie Click

GLENWOOD SPRINGS – Even though the snow is flying and the ground is frozen, plans are already in the works for this year’s Strawberry Days, Glenwood Springs’ historic summer celebration.

Always held during the third weekend in June, the festival is scheduled from Friday, June 20, to Sunday, June 22, according to Cindy Svatos, special projects director at the Glenwood Springs Chamber Resort Association.

Now in its 106th year, Strawberry Days is reportedly the oldest continuously held festival of its kind west of the Mississippi River.



What started in 1897 as a community picnic celebrating the region’s strawberry harvest has evolved into a three-day event packed with children’s activities, artisans’ booths, food, music, live entertainment, a parade and more.

During the festival, Strawberry Days takes over Sayre Park, and in the past, has stationed its carnival rides at the playing fields at St. Stephen’s School on Hyland Drive. But with the construction of the new St. Stephen’s Catholic Church, the fields are no longer available.



Svatos said the chamber will squeeze all the activities at Sayre Park.

“We’re still working that out,” she said, “but we think we’ll be able to shift things around.”

Meantime, work on the event is progressing. Svatos said chamber staff has already sent out vendor applications.

“And we’re getting ready to send out food vendor applications,” she said. “We expect about 150 artisan booths and 30 food vendor booths at this year’s event.”

Svatos said the chamber hasn’t started approaching music acts yet for 2003’s entertainment line-up.

“We have a few ideas, but we haven’t finalized anything,” she said.

The chamber has, however, decided on a theme for this year’s Strawberry Days.

“The theme is `Strawberries in Paradise,'” she said. “It’s kind of a Jimmy Buffett-inspired theme.”

The chamber has a Web site dedicated to 2003’s Strawberry Days. It’s at http://www.strawberrydaysfestival.com and is currently under construction. Svatos she’s working on the site.

“It should be up momentarily,” she said.


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