Pasadena may not be home to the biggest strawberry festival in Texas, but like a younger sibling to the better known annual celebration in Poteet, the Pasadena Strawberry Festival deserves some love and attention, too.
When people think of strawberries in Texas, Poteet usually comes to mind. Its annual celebration draws about 100,000 attendees every April. The Pasadena Strawberry Festival, on the other hand, is smaller (about 50,000 are expected), and younger (53 years, versus Poteet’s 79), but it has a not-so-secret weapon: a gigantic strawberry shortcake that can measure more than 2,000 square feet.
If you missed the Poteet Strawberry Festival, the one near San Antonio featuring a weekend of live music amid strawberry wine, chocolate-covered strawberries, strawberry ice cream, and strawberry jams, don’t worry. You still have a chance to celebrate the sweet fruit, enjoy musical acts, and partake of strawberry-derived treats from May 14-17 in Pasadena, about 20 miles southwest of Houston.
Best of all, you don’t have to pick sides: the leaders of both festivals say there’s no rivalry. The organizers of the events, which are similar in focus and held only a few hundred miles and just a month apart, are supportive of each other.
The Pasadena Strawberry Festival began in 1974, to honor the strawberry industry that emerged in the area after devastation of the 1900 Galveston hurricane. The story goes that American Red Cross founder Clara Barton visited the area after the storm and arranged for 1.5 million strawberry plants to be sent to the area.
“We’re very family oriented and we’re not just a festival, but we’re truly history,” says Murline Staley, executive director of Pasadena’s event. “It’s because the strawberries didn’t just grow here in Pasadena, they literally transformed us to what we were for many, many years.”
Pasadena no longer grows its own strawberries like Poteet does; the town shifted to oil and manufacturing during World War II. But it still celebrates the fruit, especially with the town’s famous shortcake, which can weigh as much as 10,000 pounds and is sold in sizable $6 slices. Tickets are $16 online for Pasadena’s event, or $21 at the gate, and organizers are expecting 50,000 people over four days. And despite being a festival of smaller stature, its music headliners are something to brag about, with Tracy Lawrence, Logan Ryan Band, John Foster, Diamond Rio, and Neal McCoy all scheduled to play.
There will also be a beauty pageant during the Pasadena festival, a talent show, a Selena look-alike contest, a haunted house, and other events. Visitors who want to learn more about the town’s strawberry-growing history can visit the town’s Heritage Park & Museum. Heritage Park features three historical homes, including the Parks family Strawberry House, to which, according to local lore, the family added a new room every year there was a successful strawberry crop.
After dealing with legal drama and bad weather forecasts this year, the Poteet Strawberry Festival didn’t garner as many visitors as usual during the event in April, with only about 65,000 attendees. In other years, the festival has peaked with about 146,000 attendees. Though it might be easy to pit the two festivals against each other, both festivals have nothing but nice things to say about each other.
Lopez says that Poteet strawberry growers have sold their products at the Pasadena festival and there’s a longstanding offer to help out should there ever be a berry shortage at the event.
Staley echoes the Poteet organizers.
“We have a lot of respect for each other. We share ideals, we share goals,” he says. “It’s a great group. We don’t grow strawberries here today, but the tradition carries on and I think it carries on in both cities.”
