PLEASANT GROVE, Utah — Strawberry Days in Pleasant Grove is one of Utah’s longest-running festivals, dating back to 1921.
Festival chairwoman Lisa Young said it first started to celebrate the strawberry harvest in the city.
“Originally, it was like just an after-evening celebration after they finished their harvest and they had a little bit of an abundance,” said Young. “They were so excited because they did grow them here.”
Over a century later, the strawberry fields no longer grow in the area, but the festival still goes on.
Utah Department of Food and Agriculture spokeswoman Bailee Woolstenhulme said the once fertile farmland in the area has been changed by new homes and development.
“When you do have houses instead of farmland, those houses don't return flows into the nature like farming does,” she said, “And so probably the soils would be a little bit drier in the area.”
Young said this year, around 1,800 cases of strawberries for the event came from California.
Hundreds of volunteers work to prepare them for several events in the weeklong festival.
Young said it doesn’t matter where the strawberries come from, the core purpose of the festival— bringing the community together— has stayed the same.
“We hope and our goal always has been and our motto has always been that we unify the city and that's what we hope. It always does bring everybody back together,” she said.
