CEDARBURG, Wis. (SPECTRUM NEWS) — People from all over Wisconsin and the country come together for the Cedarburg Strawberry Festival in Ozaukee county every year.
This year COVID-19 made the event go virtual, but that did not take away all the fun.
“It’s a different thing but it’s unique and it’s until we can meet again next year so this is good,” said BJ Homayouni, Executive Director of Festivals of Cedarburg, Inc.
Festival fans were still able to enjoy everything strawberry with kits delivered to their homes.
“Its a build-your-own strawberry festival kit that we would pre-sale to everybody so they could have their strawberry blush wine from the fermentorium," says Homayouni.
The kits were complete with the festival’s very own strawberry brats.
“You could be outside cooking your brats and going through the virtual events, we just thought that would be a fun idea. And actually, they did very well we finished the sales on Thursday so everybody should have them at hand,” added Homayouni.
A way to continue supporting the town’s local businesses through the pandemic.
“Scroll down you’ll start seeing all the different tiles for all the different vendors, the Cedarburg merchants…you can go to their chat room and have a conversation with them,” said Homayouni.
The virtual Cedarburg Strawberry festival also allowed residents to continue sharing everything that makes their town special with the world.
“My tagline is celebrating cedar burg in a beautiful way so I believe very strongly in the love I have for this town…I wanna help other people to celebrate that love as a visitor and as a tourist,” said Rachel Arroyo owner of Cedarburg Threads Apparel.
Arroyo created a t-shirt to commemorate the very unique way the 35th edition of the festival is taking place.
“We created a design that was custom for this event that highlighted the uniqueness of this year’s event. Using some technological icons in there…not what anyone would have wanted but it is what it is.”
Event organizers say there is an added benefit of going virtual.
“Through FaceTime, we can sit there and say hey did you see the vendor…so you can do things even with my sister lives in Houston, and she’s going to be joining us today,” finished Homayouni.
The complete list of 2020 Cedarburg Strawberry Festival vendors and performers can be found on the official virtual festival WEBSITE.