Berry Dairy Days

On the evening of Friday, June 19, 2026, five hot air balloons from Seattle Ballooning lay on the field at Skagit River Park in Burlington. As sunset approached at 9 p.m., the crews began to inflate them while party music played. The work took about 30 minutes, the Skagit Valley Herald reported. People sat in the field, on the backs of cars and along the river dike, and children played with glow sticks and ordinary balloons. When the pilots lit up the balloons the crowd went wild, and many walked straight up to the baskets to watch. The Chamber of Commerce had said in advance that the “balloons will remain on the ground and light up the evening sky rather than take flight.” Even so, some in the crowd left after about 15 minutes because the balloons never rose. The glow ended at 10:30 p.m.

That Friday Night Kick-Off was new in 2026. It opened the 89th annual Berry Dairy Days, held June 19 to 21 over Father’s Day weekend. The Burlington Chamber of Commerce runs the festival with the City of Burlington. Admission and activities are free, and food, drink and merchandise are sold.

Fairhaven Avenue and the river park

The festival works in two parts of town. Downtown, the Grand Parade went down E. Fairhaven Avenue at 10 a.m. on Saturday, June 20, 2026, with floats, marching units, community groups, performers and vehicles. The Beat the Berry Kids Dash runs downtown, and berry farm tours have set out from there.

The rest of the weekend is the Festival in the Park at Skagit River Park, 1100 South Skagit Street. It has a vendor fair of artisans, small businesses, nonprofits and food sellers, plus a live entertainment stage for performers from around the Skagit Valley. There is a free Kid Zone and Teen Zone. The Smoke & Grill BBQ Competition offers public tastings, and Pet Day in the Park is for animals and their owners. A 5K and a 10K run start from the park, and the Herald also reported a car show in 2026. At the strawberry shortcake booth, fresh berries go on the cake. The William G. Pomeroy Foundation, writing of the 2025 festival, counted hundreds of vendors and an estimated 16,000 people a day.

Fiesta Unidos by the playground

Within the park weekend, Fiesta Unidos fills an afternoon near the Entertainment Stage. In 2026 DJ Sonido Fantasma WA played. Near the playground, Skagit Latin Horses con Taborazo 911 gave a display of horsemanship set to music. Grupo Folklórico Mi Tierra danced Mexican folklórico in costume. Martha’s Bridal Fashion Show presented formalwear for weddings, quinceañeras, prom and family occasions, and the Chicas Reinas Dance Group closed the program.

Much of it traces to Rosa Marta Ortiz Vivanco, owner of Martha’s Bridal / Variedades Martha, a formalwear shop open since 1992. She has fitted the MV Mariachi Band and Grupo Folklórico Mi Tierra with attire and footwear. She also started a scholarship for students in the mariachi band. HistoryLink counted 27 percent of Burlington’s residents as Hispanic or Latino in 2017, “an indication of those who still do much of the work at local farms.”

A shortcake in red wagons

After the 2026 parade, the Burlington Historical Society dedicated the first markers of its Burlington Heritage Trail at the Visitors Information Center, 520 E. Fairhaven Ave. One marks the festival itself. It is a Hungry for History marker from the Pomeroy Foundation, sited on Fairhaven near Cherry Street. The markers weigh about 50 pounds, and city code complicated their display. Society charter member Margie Wilson and her husband built stands for them, and they had permission to show them for one day. “We needed something able to supply support for 50 pounds and iron pipes were the answer,” Wilson said. The inscription reads: “Berry Dairy Days began 1934 as Harvest Fest, renamed in 1960. Featured ‘World’s Biggest’ strawberry shortcake in 1938, with cake, strawberries, and ice cream.”

The sources do not agree on the beginning. The Pomeroy Foundation describes a 1934 Harvest Festival, hosted jointly by the fire department and the Chamber of Commerce. It had a pit-roasted barbecue steer served in sandwiches, shortcake eating contests, costume contests, a ladies’ nail driving contest, a greasy pole climb, sporting events and an evening dance. Children were let out of school early. HistoryLink dates Burlington’s Strawberry Festival to 1934, usually held in June. A 2008 Herald account says city firefighters began a fall festival, then moved it to June in 1937 for the spring crops and the strawberries. The Chamber’s own history counts from 1937. It calls that year the first official Berry Dairy Days, organized by volunteer firefighters to raise money for new equipment. To draw a crowd, it says, they made a giant strawberry shortcake, paraded it down Fairhaven Avenue in red wagons, and served slices to people along the route.

The following years brought bigger shortcakes. The Pomeroy Foundation says the event took the name Strawberry Festival in 1938 and carried the “World’s Biggest Strawberry Shortcake” in its parade, handed out free. It is thought to have held 80 sheets of shortcake, a half-ton of strawberries and 200 gallons of ice cream. HistoryLink also records the 1938 “world’s biggest shortcake parade” and its 80 sheets. It attaches the ice cream and berries to 1939, when more than 6,000 people ate the “world’s biggest ice cream sundae.” By 1950, the Pomeroy Foundation reports, as many as 12,000 people watched the parade, and the shortcake was still free.

Clowns, sawdust and a new name

Garnor Bensen first rode his bicycle along the parade route as a child in the mid-1940s. In those days there was a carnival and the shortcake. The demolition derby at Skagit Speedway, the bandstand in Railroad Park and the fly-over by the Heritage Flight Museum came later. “I remember Burlington as the sleepy little town,” he said in 2014, when he served as grand marshal of the 77th edition. Duane Stowe owns Stowe’s Shoes & Clothing on Fairhaven Avenue. He missed only three festivals, during his Air Force service in the Korean War in the early 1950s. He remembered firefighters rolling their trucks out of the fire hall, throwing sawdust on the floor, and inviting the public in for beer and cards. He remembered the free shortcake too. “Now they have to charge for it,” he said jokingly.

The name changed at a date the sources place differently. The 2008 Herald says the local dairies joined the theme after World War II. The Pomeroy Foundation says the Chamber took over the festival alone in 1960 and renamed it. The Chamber’s history gives 1965, when its then-president Roger Hulbush and other community leaders chose “Berry Dairy Days” to reflect the growing dairy industry. The Pomeroy Foundation adds that shortcake stayed as the signature dish because it carried both berries and dairy. Hulbush recalled the parade of about 1970: “local firefighters dressed as clowns helped line up participants and drove a convertible in the parade.” Ed Tjeerdsma of the Burlington Firefighters Association said in 2014, “I think it’s gotten a lot bigger, and that’s probably due to the chamber getting involved.”

By 2008, the 71st festival, high school cheerleaders served the shortcake as a fundraiser. Sakuma Brothers Farms set aside 500 pounds of strawberries for it, and Haggen Food and Pharmacy donated 2,700 shortcakes. A cold spring held back the crop that year, and part owner Ryan Sakuma warned the berries might be frozen from the year before. That festival had a tractor parade, fireworks and a 10K and 2-mile road run. The Berry Cool Car Show drew 150 to 200 classic cars. Clowns, fire trucks, police cars, dancers, marching bands, horses and tractors filled the parade, and children gathered candy thrown from the floats. The Festival in the Park then had pony rides and four local bands, held at Maiben Park in east Burlington. It had moved to Alpha Park downtown and returned to Maiben in 2003.

The calendar has moved as well. Unpredictable June weather sent the festival to July in 2000. It came back to June in 2005 so the berries would still be in when the shortcake booths went up. The 2020 festival, scheduled for August 21 to 23, was canceled that May under Skagit County Public Health guidelines. The 90th annual Berry Dairy Days is set for July 16 to 18, 2027.