Cleveland County's first ever Strawberry Festival will be held Friday and Saturday, May 13-14, 2016, at the Cleveland County Fairgrounds in Shelby.
Fair Manager Bobby Jenks had the idea for the festival. "We wanted to do something unique that would honor our area farmers," says Jenks. "We looked around the region, and we saw that there were no other strawberry festivals in the area, so we decided this would be a great tradition to bring to the county."
Jenks worked with local strawberry farmers to determine an ideal date for the event, and together they decided that the week after Mother's Day would be ideal. "We wanted to schedule it when the strawberries were sure to be ripe, but we didn't want to wait too late in the season before the kids got out of school and families started traveling," says Jenks.
"We just want this to be a fun, exciting event for families and kids in the area, and a chance for our farmers to get to showcase their beautiful strawberries," Jenks adds.
In addition to the strawberries, the festival will also feature food booths, arts and crafts vendors, rides and attractions, shagging, and contests. Dancers can shag the night away on Friday with DJ Mike McDaniel. Saturday morning will begin with the Tiny Miss Cleveland County Strawberry Princess Pageant and the Little Miss Cleveland County Strawberry Princess Pageant. Musical duo David and Mason Via will perform Saturday from 3-6 p.m., and the classic rock group Comfortably Nuts will perform from 7-9 p.m. Local dance and cheerleading groups will also perform on Saturday.
And no festival would be complete (especially at the fairgrounds) without rides! Rides will include the fun house, rock wall, slide, Hustler, boat ride, strawberry ride, obstacle course and an inflatable choo-choo.
Admission to the event is free. For more information, visit the festival's Facebook page or the web site at clevelandcountystrawberryfestival.com.

By April Hoyle Shauf

Special to Shelby Shopper