Strawberry Festival, an anchor for berry vendors
jose.romo
WATSONVILLE, Calif. (KION-TV) — Tonight marks the final day of the 31st annual Watsonville Strawberry Festival, the community coming together to recognize one of the region’s most important crops.
While the event is a celebration, strawberry farmers say 2025 has been a challenging year for various reasons. Many are looking to Watosnviille’s yearly festival as an anchor for their sales.
“Weather always plays into it; it’s been a bit of a cold year, but they’re still doing very strong. One of the other challenges we’ve been facing is obviously coming from our own government.”
Veronica Reighard with Oxnard Golden West Packaging Company says fears over heightened federal immigration enforcement among field-working communities have hit close to home.
“What we’ve been trying to help provide is a safe, fun, happy environment for our employees, but also their families,” she says. “Having them come in and just spend the day with us in our community, in our different facilities, just knowing that we’re all there together.”
Oscar Vasquez, a local strawberry vendor, says he has seen an impact on his clientele when going out to other local markets and festivals. He shares that he has seen a 30 percent drop in sales this year.
Festival organizers are also feeling the financial strain this year. “Absolutely, across the board, we’re seeing that everything is costing a little bit more,” says Jessica Beebe, recreation supervisor for the Festival. “So there’s some, some of that is impacting pricing and costs for just running the festival for sure, but people are here, they’re showing up, they are having a good time.”
Organizers and farmers add that this berry festival stems from resilience. Veronica is reassuring people that no matter the challenge, the strawberry industry is here to stay.
“Berries have been around in Watsonville for over 150 years, and we’re here to help make sure it stays another 150 years with the entire community.”
Jessica Beebe, one of the organizers, says last year the festival welcomed 57 thousand people. While they say official numbers will be out next week, this year, they are only expecting about 40 thousand attendees.