Strawberry Festival Will Remain, but the Parade Might March Off

For 46 years in Garden Grove, there have been two Memorial Day weekend certainties: strawberry eating and parade watching.

The Garden Grove Strawberry Festival, where these two things could be done, isn’t going anywhere. But for the first time in its history, organizers are considering canceling the parade, which features floats, performances by local marching bands and grand marshals who have included Robert F. Kennedy, Mickey Mouse and Zsa Zsa Gabor.

About 250,000 people attend the weekend event.

In recent years, security and insurance costs have risen about $40,000, dipping into the money the festival gives to charity, said festival board chairman Bob Kessler.

“The parade is something we would like to keep, but it’s cutting into our donations so much, we wanted to say, ‘Hey, does the public even care?’ ” he said.

“Is it worth $40,000 that could be going to build a children’s shelter or clothe the homeless or whatever?”

The festival distributes roughly $100,000 to $175,000 a year to Orange County groups, with more than $4 million donated since the event began in 1958.

But this year, the festival must pay the city $20,000 to cover security costs, compared with the $10,000 it paid last year and $5,000 in 2003. Insurance premiums have risen from $17,000 to $48,000, Kessler said.

Garden Grove City Manager Matt Fertal says the city is simply trying to recoup its manpower costs. “As we’ve added more and more festivals, the demands on the police, fire and public works is taking its toll on the city,” Fertal said.

“We support all these festivals; we want them to be successful. At the same time, they impose a lot of costs on the city.”

The city is requiring all the festivals to pay the same formula -- about half the actual cost, Fertal said.

Garden Grove isn’t the only city that has asked organizations to kick in more money for security. In 1998, Costa Mesa asked the Lions Club to fork over $20,000 for police protection, permits and other fees related to the 58-year-old fish fry. Instead of paying, the Lions Club dumped the parade.

A few years later, after paying $15,000 to settle a lawsuit by a woman who broke her ankle at an event, the Lions Club canceled the event altogether. The club revived it in 2003 after a two-year absence -- still without the parade.

Strawberry Festival officials say they haven’t given up on the parade just yet. They plan to spend the next two months gauging community support and trying to drum up sponsorships.

Saimi Wright, 48, a community services supervisor for the city, said she’d been going to the parade all her life. In high school, she dressed up as a clown. Now, she marches with the people from the senior center and makes funnel cakes.

“On one hand, I understand why they’d have to [cancel it],” Wright said. “The financial part is just huge. But it would be sad to see it go. It’s got a real hometown feel to it. It’s a tradition that we’ve had forever -- in my life, forever at least.”