As you may have known by now, Santa Maria just had their Strawberry Festival from April 26th, to April 28th. I went on the last day since students get a free admission if they show off their ID at the entrance. I believe this was only available for high school and college students but my sister, who’s in middle school was able to get a free admission. I’m pretty sure this benefit was applicable to any student with an active student ID.
I’ve been living in Santa Maria for about seven or eight years, and I just went to the Strawberry Festival for the first time. Every other time, my family and I have wanted to go to it, however, we’d usually be busy the days the festival was in town. I originally didn’t want to go because I wanted to catch up on homework for my math class and my mom was going to assist my sister, but my parents insisted for me to go with my sister. I guess my mom got tired, I’m not sure why at last minute she didn’t want to go. My sister had already made plans with her friend to hang out over there, so I didn’t really have to worry too much about her since an adult was going to be there with them. Sure, I may be eighteen already, but I don’t want to be taking care of some girls and following them around. That sounds boring. Luckily a friend of mine was going to go to the Strawberry Festival so in the end, it all worked out.
We arrived around 3;15pm at the fair park. We got lucky since the line wasn’t very long. I showed them my school ID and head into the main festival. The first thing I see are the Aztec dancers dancing. I didn’t stay long watching them because I was going to meet up with my friend. Plus, I couldn’t get a good view since everyone was just blocking it. But from the few glances I saw, the costumes of the dancers looked cool. They even brought in their dogs which I thought was adorable. I wish I got a good picture of the dogs. I originally didn’t have plans to go on the rides, but eventually I would get bored just walking around. I met up with my friend and purchased some tickets.
This is the brick oven pizza we ate.
My vanilla ice cream with sprinkles.
A cute drawing done by a child who attended the Strawberry Festival.
This is the stand where we got the funny tasting churros. I noticed that the design looked like AI art which was rather unfortunate. I remember when these fair shack designs were actually painted by real people. The shack doesn’t even know what it’s supposed to be. It’s supposed to be a candy factory as it’s called, but it also looks like a house. I don’t like to be the one to complain about AI, because AI has its perks here and there, but I know the person who designed that building could’ve done much better and not get lazy.
A chalk drawing of a pastry done by Sophia Gonzalez, who visited the Strawberry Festival. I couldn’t quite tell which way I should’ve taken the picture since the perspective of the main drawing and the “I heart strawberry” was throwing me off.
A chalk drawing of a pastry done by someone who visited the Strawberry Festival.
A chalk drawing of a strawberry moon in the distant, done by someone who visited the Strawberry Festival.
A picture I took, a bit past sunset.
The rides were alright, we didn’t go on all of them because I was a bit sick, my friend doesn’t do too well with fast rides and all of the rides you had to spend around seven to eight tickets. The carnival games were alright however the price for them were so awful. One game for ten dollars, can you believe that? That’s showbiz for ya!
The food was pretty good there. We ate brick oven pizza which didn’t look too bad. The taste of it was nice. I had a vanilla ice cream cone with sprinkles. While it did taste good, I think instead of sprinkles I should’ve chosen the Oreo bits for the topping. I tried some of the drinks from the Big Baby Bottle stand. They tasted like those flavored sparkling waters. At that point just call them soda, ha-ha. I got to try the watermelon and blue raspberry flavor. My favorite out of the two had to be the blue raspberry. My friend bought churros and I got to say, they were just ok. The first bite we took into the churro tasted very funky and oily, but eventually the other bites tasted alright. They had a two for seven deal, so I guess it was an alright purchase in the end.
I think the Strawberry Festival was pretty fun. There was a lot of good fair food and lots of cool vendors so that was really good, but the only thing I didn’t like was the weather that day. But overall, I had lots of fun, and I can’t wait for the bigger fair.”
— Talia Diaz
Overall, I think this festival was alright. Would I go there again, eh not any time sooner. I liked how much people were trying to blend in with the whole strawberry theme by wearing red. I wish I would’ve thought sooner and actually have worn something red to the festival. I know they had a dance and Banda on the other side of the fair park, which if you went on the Ferris wheel, you could get a good glimpse on how that looked. It looked pretty cool, not gonna lie. There was a cool car show that was going inside one of the buildings. There were of course several little shops with merchandise. Most of it being bootleg of course. There was a section where you can draw with chalk. Most if not all the drawings looked professionally made. Unfortunately, by time I got there, I didn’t see anyone with chalk. It must’ve been a morning activity. I also saw camels at the fair which was oddly amazing. I don’t think I ever expected to see camels here at Santa Maria. Of course, you can’t forget about the strawberries. By the time I left the fair I was just done with strawberries. It didn’t help that my parent’s friend came over a few days ago before the festival and brought us a big box of strawberries. I think I’ll be better off waiting in the summer when that fair comes to town. It looks far more interesting.
