California Strawberry Festival canceled a third year

The California Strawberry Festival in Oxnard was canceled for a third year in a row due to the ongoing uncertainty of the pandemic, festival officials announced Tuesday.

The festival had been scheduled to take place May 14 and 15 in Strawberry Meadows of College Park in Oxnard. Dean Kato, the chairman of the festival's board of directors, said they were disappointed to have to cancel the event again.

"It takes upward of six months of planning to produce the Festival," Kato said in a statement. "With the stops and starts of COVID-related restrictions and the advent of the new variant during the last few months of 2021 and into the beginning of this year, it was very difficult to plan efficiently – not only for the Festival Board, but for the many vendors, sponsors, and partners as well."

Case rates across California have been on a steady decline, and more and more cities and counties are allowing COVID restrictions and mask mandates to expire. Strawberry Festival organizers acknowledged that even though the pandemic seems to be waning, the team "concluded there was not enough time, resources, and certainty to produce a festival at the level our community expects and deserves."

The festival's organizers say they are already at work planning for a successful relaunch in 2023.