77th Annual Middle Tennessee Strawberry Festival

77th Annual Middle Tennessee Strawberry Festival
This year’s theme is “Stars, Stripes & Strawberries,” and we will be honoring current members of the U.S. Armed Forces & veterans as Grand Marshals for the parade.

Enjoy live music, over 125 food, craft & information vendors, contests, inflatables & activities for kids, carnival, 5K walk/run and more! The parade will be at 4:00pm followed by a free concert at 6:00pm featuring Four on the Floor (Decades) on the Market Street stage. Fireworks will follow the concert in the downtown Portland area.

Visit http://www.middletnstrawberryfestival.com for more information including a schedule of events, registration forms, directions and more. Information on the website will be updated as the event gets closer.

History:
In the early 1900’s Portland’s big industry was “strawberries”. In addition to the large number of farms and agricultural businesses growing the country’s finest berries, there was a creating factory, a fruit processing plant, a canning factory, and a freezing facility producing strawberries for Breyers Ice Cream and other national brands.

During the peak of the strawberry business Portland would ship out 30 railroad cars a day. Portland started hosting the Middle Tennessee Strawberry Festival in 1941, and that tradition continues today. Each year in mid-May the festival brings 30,000+ people together to celebrate the importance of the strawberry industry to Portland’s heritage.

Portland has become more industrialized over the past few decades, but we still have several local strawberry farmers who bring strawberries to sell at the Festival & have pick-your-own farms available in the area. We can’t predict what the strawberry crop will look like each year as the weather plays a huge factor in the size of the strawberry crop, but our community still celebrates together each May the importance strawberries have on our town’s heritage.

We hope you will join us this year to celebrate! The Middle Tennessee Strawberry Festival provides an opportunity for people to travel to Portland to enjoy the events, the food, the community and the small-town feel of Portland with family & friends.