Welcome to Buckhannon for the 77th West Virginia Strawberry Festival!
West Virginia Strawberry Festival, May 12 – 20, 2018
Dear 2018 Strawberry Festival attendees:
On behalf of our entire City of Buckhannon family including our 85 dedicated employees who are here to serve, I bring you warmest greetings from City Hall. To those of you returning to attend this year’s 77th Strawberry Festival, “Stars, Stripes, and Strawberries,” we’re so happy to have you back. To our new friends attending their very first Festival, we’re most pleased to welcome you to our wonderful community.
Whether you’ve arrived in Buckhannon for the funnel cakes, corndogs, chocolate covered strawberries, kettle corn, or deep fried oreos- or whether you’re going to wear out the carnival midway- or whether you’ve come for our four parades, the pageantry, the vintage cars, the arts, the crafts, the music- our place has long put the “festive” in the Festival! Steeped in decades of tradition, none of our many special Festival events would be possible without the contributions of the many volunteers who come together to produce one of the very finest annual events held in all of West Virginia. We thank them all.
You will find so many fun things to do in our beautiful downtown. From sampling the many culinary wonders in our many fine restaurants and cafes to checking out our cool public arts and flora to hitting our terrific River Trail and parks- there truly is something here for everyone. Walk the newly completed sidewalk loop in Jawbone Park and visit with Buckongahelas & Mahonegon created by the late, great Ross Straight. Check out the alien atop our Colonial Theatre! Be sure to take some selfies with our best pal “Lurch” and our gi-normous “French Creek Freddie” statues! We have a lot of zany fun here!
All of us in Buckhannon hope you will enjoy a most excellent 77th Festival. If there’s anything we can do to make your Festival experience more pleasurable, drop by City Hall at 70 East Main Street or phone us at (304) 472-1651. Don’t forget to sample some strawberry shortcake. See you all at the parades- I’ll be the ole guy waving to you from a blue convertible packed with my six, ornery, monkey-grandchildren! Have a blast in our beloved Sunnybuck!
-Mayor David McCauley