Tarmo Hannula
VISUAL IMPACT Jessica Carrasco puts the final touches on a large mural that highlights strawberries Wednesday on Laundry Day
laundromat at East Lake Avenue and Brennan Street. Mateo Gonzalez (aka Primo) and Paul De Worken also teamed up on the project.
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he Watsonville Strawberry Festival will return Sunday to downtown, bringing with it a full day of strawberry delicacies, live entertainment, artisan vendors and more. Like most events in 2020, South County’s premier festival was canceled in response to the pandemic.
READY TO SHIP Strawberry harvest
season is well underway on a field along San Andreas Road in Watsonville.
And for a while, the city wasn’t sure if it would be able to hold it this year. “We start planning for these events months in advance,” said Imelda Negrete, recreation superintendent for the Parks and Community Services department. “We had no idea how things would be right now, and things have been changing every five seconds.” Due to this uncertainty, organizers
made the decision to scale down this year’s event to make sure they’d have enough employees and be able to keep visitors safe. It will now be held one day instead of two, and without the carnival component. “But we still wanted to do it … to bring this back to the community,” Negrete said. “We wanted to give them some sense of normalcy, or as close as we could.” ➝6
Tarmo Hannula
AUGUST 6 -12, 2021 | PAJARO VALLEY MAGAZINE
A sweet tradition
