Fruit Festivals

Many festivals are based on seasonal fruits, especially strawberries, celebrations of which abound in North America and Europe. See fruit. Perhaps the most famous in the United States is held in Ponchatoula, Louisiana, which bills itself as the Strawberry Capital of the World. Bayou musicians perform at the city’s three-day Strawberry Festival in mid-April, and there is a Strawberry Strut race, a parade and auction, and a college scholarship for each year’s Strawberry Queen. Strawberries are consumed deep-fried, chocolate-dipped, blended in daiquiris, and by the dozens in a strawberry-eating contest. The festival is preceded by a Strawberry Ball at the end of March and followed by a Strawberry King and Queen Pageant and Grand Marshall Coronation at the end of May.