THE 2025 Garden Grove Strawberry Festival parade is on Saturday morning (Orange County Tribune photo).
By Miles Gaskin
Orange County Tribune
This year’s Garden Grove Strawberry Festival is 65 years old – mature enough to have a memorable history, and youthful enough to offer a weekend of thrills, music and yes, the namesake treat: the strawberry.
SYLVIA MENDEZ
“We will have a few new rides that people will enjoy,” said Tony Lopez, president of the all-volunteer Garden Grove Strawberry Festival Association. “We also have new strawberry-themed items at our non-profit food vendors, and we will have live music playing all weekend in the Garden Amphitheater, free of charge.”
The festival opens on Friday and runs through Monday, with the parade on Saturday, stepping off at 10 a.m. The route starts at Chapman Avenue at 9th Street, heading west.
At Euclid Street it heads south and finishes at Acacia Avenue.
KATE LINDER
This year’s theme is “Celebrating Cultural Diversity.” The theme parade grand marshal is Sylvia Mendez, who was the plaintiff in the landmark civil rights case in which the California Supreme Court outlawed racial and ethnic segregation in the state’s public schools.
The celebrity grand marshal is Kate Linder, star of the TV daytime drama, “The Young and the Restless.”
TONY LOPEZ
Lopez, in his first term as president of the Association, points out that the event is not just an entertainment enterprise.
The event brings families together, he said, and “we also help with 75 percent of the festival profits going back to the community. We help over 30 different local organizations here in Garden Grove with capital improvement projects.”
Festival hours are Friday from 1 to 10 p.m., Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.. and Monday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Admission to the festival is free.
