South Carolina Strawberry Festival

This was our second time coming to the Strawberry Festival. The last time we went was 8-10 years ago. We enjoyed ourselves each time.Tips:Arrive first thing when they open to avoid traffic and finding a spot to park. They have several different lots to choose from - some will shuttle you or others are a short walk. We chose the lot with the short walk. Bring cash for this - it's $5.Arriving early allows you to walk around to each of the vendors before it gets slammed just to check things out. Lines for food started early, so if you think about having lunch at 12, be prepared for long lines. We had no issues with vendors accepting credit card or cash.Bring water. We brought our hydroflask filled with water and ice which was nice because it gets warm fast.What I love:That each vendor had at least one menu item featuring strawberries - whether it is a dessert or a meal. If you love strawberries like me, you can find a lot of great items to fill you up! Look forward to it again next year, it's a great time!

AMAZING fun time for the whole family! Great food selection from many LOCAL food establishments that have their own trucks. A standard set of faire food too... YES on the FUNNEL CAKE! A good set of rides for kids aged 8-12 years old. Prices are carnival-level... not cheap... but understandable. LOTS of lawn and grass areas to hang out. LOTS of police and safety folks very visible. All the tent vendors are in the shade, so it was easy and nice to walk around and visit them out from the sun. LOTS of toilets... AND a physical toilet building for those that dont like the plastic portable toilets. There is a NEW kids area they built in the park and they had it fenced in so the kids would not be running away and out of parent control, it was like a mini-day-care. Excellent selection of local and appropriate music to listen to that was at appropriate volume levels to be able to enjoy. Parking was difficult, but there were bus shuttles to the local school that ran every few minutes, so that was helpful.They had a classic car show, that was fun to walk around.I think they should have had more 'competition' style activities.

Review for South Carolina Strawberry Festival 2018 (Wednesday)Attended Wednesday Night "Pick-N-Flick" event at the ASC Greenway-835 Springfield Parkway. This is a different location than this coming Friday and Saturday Festival.The mission was to pick Strawberries and decide later if we stick around to see the film. The film area was outdoors in the field and not in a barn?Guess that what it meant by Field Trial Barn which was really spacious for lots of attendees. It was just too hot to be out in the sun to watch the flick, so we left after picking the strawberries.Parking for $5 and was conveniently located to walking distance to Strawberry fields. There was play area for kids and rides. Noticed Coke booth but did not see a lot of other eateries nor food trucks for we were by the strawberry picking area and entrance.Picking strawberries is fun and what a work out. Just bend and search for your own strawberries. Wonder how many calories I burned in 30- 40 minutes. Not messy at all or did we get any bug bites from picking all these beautiful strawberries. Searched carefully for ripe strawberries and did not throw any on the ground. What we picked is what we tooked being mindful of mother nature. Make sure you wear comfortable closed toe shoes or sneakers. Some patch area were muddy too. There were discarded strawberries on the ground and you walking on clay soil pathway that was not leveled. Had to grab friend standing next to me cause I lost my balance.I definitely will be back next year and the year after just to pick strawberries. Tasting fresh picked strawberries is not the same as buying them from the grocery store. It's all about the experience. We had a great time. Staff was helpful and attentive to attendees. Caution driving into parking area and watch out for kids and pedestrians. Staff will guide you through.

This is one of the festivals I try to go to every year. It usually takes place on a Friday and Saturday in early May. It's a bit of a mini carnival. You'll find carnival rides for kids, lots of carnival food, live music, and a pretty good selection of arts and craft vendors. At night there are usually fireworks too. I love that so many of the food vendors have strawberry themed food. The strawberry shortcake from Bruesters is one of my favorites. You can find things like strawberry lemonade, popcorn, donuts, bread, and deep fried strawberries. The food vendors don't take credit card, so bring cash. The art vendors do take credit card. There's a couple parking lots, we usually park at Fort Mill High School and then they have a bus that shuttles you to the park. If you haven't been before, I think is a fun way to spend a few hours!

So after reading reviews and checking out the website online and getting all the info I needed, I was ready to check out the SC Strawberry Festival.And 100% cosign, no clue as to why this is called the Strawberry Festival. Maybe at one time they had a strawberry focus but only signs of strawberries were at the entrances/exits. Otherwise, I would just consider this a normal festival.Upon going to the website, I learned of the $5 parking with free shuttle to the festival, so we readily took this option. Not familiar with the area, I did reach out to a fellow yelper and asked which area would be best and so we went and parked at Nations Ford HS and this indeed was the best option. They had plenty of "shuttles" and we had no wait on the way to the festival and on the way back, our wait was very minimal. The set up is decent. Food Vendors, Rides and Art/Crafts Vendor are all set up in different areas. What I really liked about this festival was the playground because my son was able to play and have some fun and we didn't have to spend a lot of money on rides. We were going to do rides but after seeing how long the lines the were and reading how long people waited, it just wasn't worth it to me.Most food booths are cash only and they don't serve drinks. You have to go to coca cola booth for drinks. Crazy right? They do have ATMs on site but be better prepared than I was and bring more cash.The strawberry jam stage had plenty of performances and most were enjoyable. But truth be told, this is not a festival I would repeatedly visit every year. It was fun for a family experience but I know for certain there are other family activities we could do and have much more fun.

The festival was a lot of fun. So why 3 stars?It lost one star due to the parking situation. Not a ton of close parking and even with the parking and brochure, it wasn't very identifiable when looking for parking. Some of the lots, which are closer to the park, don't have buses making the trips. Therefore, you are walking across and through busy streets.It lost another star because the lines for everything were massive. Is it really the fairs fault that this occurred? Probably not, but it did take away from the event a little for us.The tickets were reasonably priced for the rides and music could be heard throughout the entire festival.We will go back in 2019.

My family and I drove all the way from Winston-Salem, NC to attend the Strawberry Festival. All-in-all, it was a great time but disappointing. There are no arm bands for rides, so you have to buy tickets. Tickets are a waste of money as the wait for each ride is over an hour. Needless to say, our son only got to ride 1 and we gave away our other tickets. The food there is okay. We never tried anything with strawberries (how ironic). I was very disappointed in the food truck that supposedly offered authentic New Orleans cuisine. They were out of gumbo so all I got to try was the beignets, if that's what you wanna call them. I'm from New Orleans, and I know beignets are light and fluffy. Not hard and thin like a hockey puck.Tried some bbq, had a Carolina Cheesesteak (brisket and onion smothered in bbq and cheese sauce and served on a burger bun). Was delicious and messy! Had some chocolate dipped cheesecake drizzled with white chocolate.. was pretty good. The frozen, chocolate dipped banana topped with nuts was not so great. Sour apple Italian ice, delicious! Didn't find anything special to buy n bring home because just about every stand was either homemade soap or jewelry. Blah. Was a nice family day out, though. Probably won't be back. Rather stick to the smaller festivals closer to home.

Nicely organized event! Would have been nice if there were more tents to shelter folks from tbe rain..... but, overall, had a great time! Good music, and a nice variety of vendors. Food was great too!!

The car show is amazing! It's a huge festival with lots to do and enjoy. Get there early because it's hard to find parking space. Bring a chair and a mat and enjoy good music with good food truck vendors :)

As a fort Mill native I am very disappointed with the "south Carolina" strawberry festival. Fort Mill is not big enough to host such a huge event!! Overly crowded and the lines for the rides are over an hour long wait. Not worth it at all!! I told myself last year I would never go back. Looking forward to it being over with this year. Way too many people and not enough room.