California Strawberry Festival Admin Offices - Oxnard, California

norman stirbis

Well,
We took AMTRC to the Ventura Fair grounds & it was a fun adventure from Anaheim Station @ 6:10 AM in the morning.
We finally made it to Ventura fair grounds about 9AM & waited in line for about 1 hour & 15 minutes.
No fun, especially when you have a bad knee & YES I’m just not saying it hurts but from failed operations over the past 3 years.
So I know what pain is & how difficult it is to stand in line & balance on your good leg.
Finally at 10 AM the gates opened & still we waited another 10-15 minutes before they figured out how to start getting in the hoards of people.
We finally made it inside & the Fairgrounds were extremely run down & hard to walk on the uneven ground for myself & my group, so we went to merch store & bought some shirts & walked all around the run down place, the booths were everywhere & we went through the few places & had our packaged lunch to save $.
Finding seating was shameful & especially for those who are Handicapped & or special needs. Very shareful !
Finally at 11:30 the music started at both venues & I was not impressed until around 4:30 PM when the 80’s bad came on & they were actually good. The others were OK , Santana Tribute were a 5 out of 10 and the Surf Band were a 2 out of 10.
Then headed back to Amtack & waited for Train, it was 1.5 hours late & we made it back to Anaheim @ 11PM ?

So the Train was fun & the Strawberry ? Festival sounded like a great idea but in the future I’ll be making my own Strawberry Shortcake ? that actually tastes good and be driving my group & spending the night at a hotel.
If I were to rate the Strawberry ? Festival on a scale 1-10; I would give it a 4 due to the fact the area was terrible to get around, lack of seating and extremely high prices at area.
Blessings

Professor Dan

Justin H.

its a local fair, with the tiniest smattering of strawberries, we drove all the way up there and we hardly saw any strawberry products. my entire group left unhappy.

Guillermo Sanchez

This was our second year attending this festival. This year was even more fun than the last.

Other than the on-site parking, they have three other locations nearby, in the city, that offer FREE parking and utilize a shuttle service using school buses to drop you off at the front gates.

Their online prices are the same as at the gate, but you avoid yet another line you'd have to wait if you just purchase ahead of time and print at home.

Once inside, there's plenty for the kids to see and do. Adults have a nice selection of different vendors that sell everything strawberry themed. Wine, beer, smoothies, funnel cake, chocolate covered strawberries, a large assortment of festival food...

The carnival rides are nothing to marvel at, but the good thing is that each ride is one ticket per person... and each ticket is only $1. Some of the rides are even free and there's a pretty decent playground to let them loose for a while.

Overall, we had a great time, it wasn't too hot, the smoothies were good, the kids had a blast, parking was free and easy and we got a few delicious drinks in.

Chelsea Madren (OC Food Diva)

As you walk through the Red Gate, you are given your first tastes of California strawberries, chilled and super-sweet. Whole flats (12 pint baskets) were only $16, what a fantastic deal! Mental note: pick them up on the way out. First order of business, check out the "Build Your Own Strawberry Shortcake" tent. Build them as big as you like for $5. What a deal! If you want to try other foods as the festival, you don't want to make it too big. Start by building your foundation of pound cake, ladle on strawberries in natural syrup, bring on the whipped cream, and top with some fresh strawberries. What a beautiful sight!

It's time to balance out the sweet with some savory. If you love smoked turkey legs, the festivals has some really good ones. Perfectly smoked and flavored down to the bone! The Greek food booth was huge this year with so many choices. The Philly Cheese Steak Fries were gigantic! It was an interesting flavor, instead of ribeye they used the gyro meat which actually worked really well. The fries were thin cut spirals which had a French fry/potato chip flavor. The grilled onions, bell peppers, and cheese sauce hit the spot. The beef kabob was disappointing. After waiting almost 20 minutes for the order, the beef was very tough and chewy. It probably needed to be cooked on a lower heat for a longer time to make it tender. Roasted corn, on the other hand, was sweet and roasted to perfection.

Strawberry Promenade stage showcased, Bricia Lopez, executive chef of Guelaguetza restaurant in Los Angeles, CA, with her Strawberry and Chapulin (Oaxacan grasshopper) Spring Salad. I know what you're thinking, grasshoppers! In Hawaii, we have a "pupu", aka pub grub, of dried, salted shrimp that is usually eaten with a cold beer, sort of like peanuts or pretzels at a bar. The chapulin reminded me of these dried shrimp but with a citrus flavor (from the lime juice). Getting over what they look like is the hard part. Once you do, it's actually really good. In Bricia's recipe, the chapulin are ground up so they actually look like spices in the vinaigrette and sprinkled on the salad. The flavors reacted nicely with the strawberries for a refreshing spring salad.

The main event of the day was the Berry Blast-Off Recipe Contest "Smack Down". After helping select these two finalists a couple of weeks ago, I was determined to support and find out who the judges would pick as the champion and winner of a four-night cruise. In the left corner, Winona Krieger prepared her "Strawberry Brulee (with Rockin Berry Brittle)". In the right corner, Larissa Nelson prepared her "Oxnard Strawberry Coconut No-Bake Tiramisu". Chris Burrous, from KTLA 5, emceed the event with play by play commentary with the contestants and judges, including 2-time winner on Cupcake Wars, Arleen Scavone, owner of Sweet Arleen's in Westlake Village, CA. Both competitors completed their dishes in the one hour time limit and it was judging time. As totals were tallied, Larissa Nelson won the contest. Congratulations, Larissa and have fun on your cruise!

After sitting in the Strawberry Promenade stage tent for over 2 hours, it was time for an ice cold drink. What could be better than a fresh, ice cold, strawberry smoothie! Full of strawberry flavor, you can tell by all of the strawberry seeds, it hit the spot as the sun shone brightly, but thankfully there was a nice cool breeze as well.

Our last food stop for the day was funnel cakes. Watching people walking around with these beautifully puffy concoctions, they were needed for the ride home. The Cinnamon Sugar Funnel Cake was like a huge puffy churro. The cinnamon sugar mixture stuck in the nooks and crannies for a perfectly, not too sweet dessert. Funnel cake topped with powdered sugar is always a favorite too!

anita lichtman

The crafts were in a field which made it difficult for seniors to get around. Also, vendors we were looking for were not there. Very disappointing.

MALAY TRIVEDI

Worst experience ever. All they had was food stalls and people selling some stupid souveniers which were cheap. Over priced food and waste of money.

Starla King

I went yesterday

Frank Medina

Need to go check it out give it ?