The Bedford Historical Society’s 54th annual Strawberry Festival brought an assortment of visitors and lots of yummy activity to the downtown area this weekend. Festival organizers once again transformed the historic square into a hub of foods and crafts, that at times, stretched all the way up Broadway Avenue and included the 13th Annual Car Show.
As always, the main attractions were the scrumptious strawberry offerings including jams and many fresh desserts, but there were plenty of other activities to do and see to make a day of it.
Phyllis Richardson of Bedford, and her grandson Ian, strolled around the square on Saturday afternoon, bought a sweatshirt, ate some strawberry shortcake and played a baseball game in the children’s game area. Then they planned to come back in the evening for the car show.
Jarrod and Taahirah Levert and their family came to the festival from Shaker Heights for the first time this year. Jarrod saw an announcement for the festival last year on Facebook, and was reminded again of it this year and made sure to attend. He said he bought some jam and was pleased at how respectful everyone was.
A new vendor put a different spin on selling soft drinks this year. George Welch provided homemade root beer, vanilla cream, birch beer and other sodas fresh from the tap at his
Southwest Soda Saloon. Festival attendees could purchase a classy steel mug and enjoy free refills for the rest of the day.
Antonio Lynch and Doreen Simpson from Garfield Heights came to enjoy the festival food in particular, including the hamburgers and elephant ears. One place they frequented was Bedford Falls Cafe’s grill area set up right outside the restaurant on the square.
The Cafe’s Jennifer Basile said bringing out the grills is something special for the festival season, as is keeping the restaurant open all of the hour the festival is running.
“We get really busy,” Basile said. “Vendors will come here and eat breakfast and lunch.” She said they are especially active on the Saturday of the festival as many of the entrants in the Car Show come in to eat.
