BUCKHANNON – The 2024 West Virginia Strawberry Festival will kick off at a new location for its opening ceremonies.
Strawberry Festival Board President Shane Jenkins attended the Feb. 22 Buckhannon Consolidated Public Works Board meeting to request formal approval for certain street closures and other services for the upcoming festival.
The requested closures were mostly typical, with a couple of new entries, he said.
“We are asking for the use of Jawbone Park for Opening Ceremonies and the Pet Show on May 11; that’ll be our opening day, that first Saturday,” Jenkins said. “We’re moving Opening Ceremonies there because the last day of early voting is the first day of our event, so we can’t do anything at the courthouse that would hinder that process.”
Jenkins said Jawbone Park has already become a hub for the Strawberry Festival, so it makes sense to have Opening Ceremonies on that end of town.
“We’re also asking for the use of Traders Alley when Main Street is closed anyway, so it’s going to be both ends – we’re going to just use it for some mobile performing units and entertainment,” Jenkins said. “We are also asking for additional assistance as required by public works, public safety and any other resources as needed to produce a safe event, allowing our presentations to highlight the best of the area, so we’re just looking at a little bit of increase – actually, quite a bit of increased security this year.”
The Strawberry Board also sought assistance and permission to block the entrance of North Spring Street and East Main Street at the sidewalk area so a stage could be set up.
“This is probably the biggest difference we’re asking for this year,” Jenkins said. “The stage will be a professional-level stage, and we’re asking for it to be closed from Friday morning into Saturday afternoon for that stage.”
W.Va. Strawberry Festival Board Member Jim Valenson said the board was also asking for an extended closure of Main Street that would include Thursday, so Main Street would be closed Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
“Thursday is due to the drumline competition; we wanted to bring more excitement into the downtown area this year,” Valenson said. “Our entertainment is a little bit different than you’ve seen in the past. We are having WAMSB participation, which will bring more bands; we have bands from Tennessee and Ohio, and then they’re bringing in 70-to-100-piece bands to participate.”
The Mardi Gras theme of the 2024 festival will also introduce new themed entertainment.
“We also have brass bands coming in to fit the theme of Strawberry Festival,” Valenson said. “We want to try to bring WAMSB to Strawberry Festival rather than the college because that brings it downtown so more people can also enjoy our businesses, and [those businesses] can benefit from the extra people in town.”
The Consolidated Board recommended approving the closures and other service requests, but Buckhannon City Council will have the final say when it meets in March.
Mayor Robbie Skinner said council will have to grant any funding requests made.
“As far as the funding request side of things, the Revenue and Expense Review Committee has met, but at this point, it’s still a recommendation to the city council, and we don’t have another city council meeting until March 7,” Skinner said. “At that time, those funding requests will be officially voted on by council.”
