By Darlene Brace
With the local homegrown strawberry season soon approaching, it’s now time for Merritt Estate Winery’s Annual Strawberry Festival, located at 2264 King Road Forestville New York. Merritt Winery opened its doors in 1976 and has been hosting the Strawberry Festival for the past 43 years. This year’s Strawberry Festival will be taking place on June 7th-9th. Admission is free, and it will be fun for the entire family!
To kick off the weekend, the winery hosts a Friday night concert featuring Uncle Ben’s Remedy, with special guest Ten Cent Howl. The doors open at 5pm, and the band perform from 7-10pm, so get ready to rock out. There will be food and beverages such as beer, a wide variety of wines and their ever-popular wine slush available. During this time there will be no vendors or other activities. Guests are encouraged to bring their own lawn chair and should refrain from bringing in outside food or beverages.
The festival gets under way starting at 12pm on Saturday and it continues until 10pm. On both Saturday and Sunday all the vendors and activities will be up and running from 12-6pm. There will also be a variety of children’s activities, such as face painting, a bounce house, Mr. No the Balloon Guy, and a fire truck from the Sheridan Volunteer Fire Department.
The weekend features over twenty local vendors selling crafts, and specialty items, including homemade soaps, jewelry, gourmet popcorn, home décor, and more. There will be a classic car cruise-in from 12 -6pm on both Saturday and Sunday. There is no registration required and no restriction on the make or model as all cars are welcome. All drivers will receive $5 vouchers to redeem for food and beverage throughout the weekend.
Speaking of food, the festival will have delicious food ranging from chicken sandwiches and wraps, garbage plates, hamburgers, fries, and much more. Make sure you leave room for some awesome strawberry shortcake or chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. Yum!!
On Saturday afternoon, live music continues with Buffalo’s Tacoma Meltdown. They play from 12-3pm, covering a range of genres from rock, blues, funk, punk, and pop hits from the 70s-today. Next on the line up is the one and only Black Widow, who takes the stage from 3:30pm-6:30pm to perform classic rock and pop hits. They will surely get you up dancing or moving to the beat in your seats. Rounding out the evening is headliner, Uncovered. Based in Buffalo, this popular party band covers everything from the 70’s to today’s hits, and will take the stage from 7-10pm
On Sunday afternoon, the festival continues from 12-6:30pm. The day will feature the classic car cruise-in, kid’s activities, and live music. Red Rain performs decades of tunes from 12-3pm, followed by party band Party McFly from 3:30-6:30pm. The vendors as well as the delicious food, drinks and strawberry desserts will continue to be available for the rest of the afternoon.
Throughout the festival, the tasting room will be open to purchase glasses and bottles of wine. Currently the winery has 27 award winning wines that they produce and sell. Featuring a variety of white and red wines, as well as specialty wines such as a Raspberry Truffle and Peach Splash. They also serve draft beer and their wine slush in three flavors Sangria, XTC, and 5 o’clock. Customers come from all over New York State, Pennsylvania, and other locations to enjoy Merritt’s wines and the Strawberry Festival.
As part of the Strawberry Festival each year, the winery chooses a local charity to collect donations in place of charging admission or parking fees. This year they chose FeedMore WNY, who provides nutritious food to Western New York’s people in need. During the festival they will be hosting a food drive to collect non-perishable items on Saturday and Sunday, or you can also make a monetary donation. To find the list of most needed items for the food drive, as well as a complete list of the Strawberry Festival information, go to merrittestatewinery.com or their Facebook page @MerrittWinery
Every year during the first weekend of June, you can look forward to the Strawberry Festival as the start of the festival season begins. Bring your family and friends to enjoy live music, delicious food, refreshing beverages, and of course strawberry