Garden Grove Strawberry Festival Memorial Weekend

The 66th annual Garden Grove Strawberry Festival is running through Memorial Day, Monday, May 25, at Village Green Park and surrounding downtown festival grounds in Garden Grove, according to the event’s official schedule. Festival organizers list carnival rides, food booths, contests and free concerts across four days, with hours set for 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Monday. The festival’s website says the event is a nonprofit community tradition that has run for 66 years. The City of Garden Grove also lists the 66th annual Strawberry Festival on its events calendar. ### Where is the festival happening this weekend? Village Green Park at Main Street and Euclid Street is the center of the festival footprint, according to the event website. Organizers also direct visitors to maps, parking and bus-route information through the festival site, which says the grounds are in the downtown area. The Garden Amp at 12762 Main Street is one of the festival’s main performance venues, the site says. (strawberryfestival.org) The Strawberry Stage is at Main and Acacia, where the Friday opening ceremony and cake cutting were scheduled. ### What is on the schedule after Friday’s opening ceremony? Friday, May 22, included a 6 p.m. opening ceremony and strawberry cake cutting, with free cake served to attendees, according to the official schedule. (strawberryfestival.org) The program listed remarks from Strawberry Festival President Steve Sanders, a color guard from the Garden Grove Police Department and the national anthem by Jake Burnett. (strawberryfestival.org) Saturday, May 23, was scheduled to begin with an 8:15 a.m. celebrity VIP breakfast at the Garden Grove Community Center, followed by a 10 a.m. parade starting at Ninth and Chapman streets and a celebrity autograph signing outside the Courtyard Center at about 1 p.m., the schedule says. The same page listed live music on both the Strawberry Stage and the Garden Amp through the evening. (strawberryfestival.org) Sunday, May 24, the festival schedule lists the Berry, Berry Beautiful Baby Contest at 11 a.m. and the Strawberry Fashion Frenzy Contest at 1 p.m., both at the Garden Amp. Sunday night’s Garden Amp lineup includes tribute acts for Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Linkin Park and Green Day, according to the performance page. ### Which concerts and contests are free? (strawberryfestival.org) The Garden Amp page says its concerts are free throughout the four-day weekend. Friday’s lineup listed Heartbreaker, a Justin Bieber tribute band, and New Romantics, a Taylor Swift tribute band, while Saturday’s schedule listed tribute sets for Garbage, the Killers, the Cranberries and Sublime. The Strawberry Stage page also describes its performances as free and says the stage hosts local bands and the festival’s annual cake tradition. (strawberryfestival.org) Saturday’s stage lineup included Boys & Girls Club performances, Look, Lately, Fallout Shelter and Your Mom, while Sunday’s schedule listed Tin Soul, Living In Stereo and Forever Sunday. Family contests are centered at the Garden Amp, according to the festival site. (strawberryfestival.org) The contests page and schedule list the Tiny Tot King & Queen contest on Friday, the baby and fashion contests on Sunday, and the Redhead Roundup on Monday. ### Who are this year’s featured guests? Emilio Rivera is listed by the festival as the 2026 celebrity grand marshal. The festival’s celebrity page says Rivera, known for “Collateral,” “On My Block” and “Sons of Anarchy,” is among the guests appearing during Friday’s opening ceremonies and the Saturday parade. (strawberryfestival.org) The 2026 celebrity roster also includes Kate Linder of “The Young & The Restless,” Wahoo’s Fish Tacos co-founder Wing Lam, skateboarder Don “Nuge” Nguyen and Miss California Volunteer 2026 Prestin Bueno, according to the festival site. (strawberryfestival.org) The page says celebrities are scheduled to appear in the parade and at the autograph signing outside the Courtyard Center. (strawberryfestival.org) ### What changed this year? The festival homepage says “the parade and community breakfast have been canceled, but the festival is still open.” The schedule and events pages viewed on the festival site still contain listings for the Saturday breakfast and parade, indicating the site carried both the cancellation notice and earlier event details as of Sunday. The City of Garden Grove homepage also links to a notice headlined “Garden Grove Strawberry Festival Parade and Strawberry Stomp Postponed,” though the text of that notice was not visible in the homepage excerpt returned by search. (strawberryfestival.org) Based on the city and festival notices, the festival itself remained open while at least some marquee Saturday events were called off or postponed. ### What is still ahead on Memorial Day? (strawberryfestival.org) Monday, May 25, the official schedule lists festival hours from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and the Redhead Roundup contest at 11 a.m. at the Garden Amp. The same schedule lists Strawberry Stage performances beginning at noon and Garden Amp concerts by JLB Band, Loversonicos Band and Mantra later in the day. Organizers direct visitors to the current event schedule, maps and parking pages on the festival website for updates. (ggcity.org) (strawberryfestival.org)