Gales Creek Strawberry Festival returns June 13

The Gales Creek Strawberry Festival returns to downtown Gales Creek June 13 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The festival, an homage to the Gales Creek Valley's strawberry-producing heyday, is the largest summer festival in the valley. This year marks the third consecutive festival after the pandemic caused a four-year hiatus from 2020 to 2023.

The Gales Creek Community Club, with volunteers from numerous other community groups like the Gales Creek Community Church of God, prepares and serves strawberry shortcake, directs traffic, handles vendor questions, and plans the event.

New this year, Sargent Road will be closed from Gales Creek Road to past the church and school to allow for a safer experience for visitors. In past years, the festival has been split by the roadway.

This year, one-way traffic to access ADA parking will be allowed from the Old Wilson River Road entrance to Sargent Road, exiting to Gales Creek Road from the gravel driveway between the Gales Creek Community Church and Gales Creek Tavern.

Parking can be found at the nursery property across the street on Gales Creek Road, at the Timmerman House, and at the field near the former Gales Creek Store.

“The Gales Creek Annual Strawberry Festival has been running consecutively since 1966,” said festival vendor coordinator Sharon Parker, noting the exception of several years during the COVID-19 pandemic and shortly afterward.

(Disclosure: This journalist volunteers at the Strawberry Festival. Sharon Parker is his mother.)

“We served a single handful shy of 800 shortcakes last year,” Parker said. She hopes visitors this year will break that record.

Shortcake comes in two sizes, $5 for a small and $10 for a large, and each is served with complimentary lemonade and coffee. Tillamook Creamery donated 45 gallons of ice cream for the shortcake, Parker said.

The festival will feature about 50 vendors, including face painting, caricatures, jewelry, yard art, homemade knives and laser printing. Five or six agricultural vendors and four or five bakers round out the lineup, alongside commercial vendors and a food court serving Mexican food, pizza and hot dogs.

The event is held on the grounds of the Gales Creek School and the Gales Creek Church on Sargent Road in downtown Gales Creek.