Program

Hungry for History®

Subject

Event, Site

Location

Fairhaven near Cherry St., Burlington, WA 98233, USA

Lat/Long

48.475381366839, -122.32798981304

Grant Recipient

Burlington Historical Society

In 1934, Burlington held its first Harvest Festival to celebrate the thriving agricultural industry in the area. It was a joint event hosted by the fire department and Chamber of Commerce. The Harvest Festival featured games with prizes, contests, and a pit-roasted barbecue steer, served in sandwiches. There were shortcake eating contests, costume contests, a ladies nail driving contest, and even a greasy pole climbing contest. There were sporting events, and a dance held in the evening. Children were released early from school for the city-wide event, and it was reported to run for the full weekend.

Particularly important to the area was the strawberry farming industry. Only a few years later, in 1938, they re-named the event to the Strawberry Festival. That year they also advertised and featured the “World’s Biggest Strawberry Shortcake”, which they included in the parade (see photo below). The shortcake is thought to have contained 80 sheets of shortcake, topped with a half-ton of strawberries, and served with 200 gallons of ice cream. It was handed out for free to the crowd. The Strawberry Festival drew huge crowds throughout the 1930s, 40s, and 50s.

By 1950, it was reported that the festival had grown to attract a crowd as large as 12,000 to watch the parade and featured the same free and enormous strawberry shortcake. In 1960, the Chamber of Commerce took over running the festival alone and re-named it to Berry Dairy Days. This was in order to include both the strawberry and dairy industries in the celebration, as both were incredibly important to the economy and culture of the area. The dish of strawberry shortcake was kept as the signature dish, as it featured both berries and dairy.

As of 2025, the festival is still held and spans three days, serving strawberry shortcake, exhibiting hundreds of vendors, and draws an estimated 16,000 people per day.

Learn more about the festival here: https://www.berrydairydays.com/