Knott's Boysenberry Festival Fun

Over the weekend we were invited out to Knott's Berry Farm to partake in this years Boysenberry Festival. This year the event has gotten even bigger and if the first day of the event is any indication, much more popular, which is great to see. 
We also took some time to check out the Boysenberry Pie eating competition which was great fun. 

---

Pictures and Words by Gregg Condon

Welcome to the Boysenberry Festival!! 

Lots of great decorations all around Ghost Town and all of the locations that have Boysenberry Festival items are marked with a Boysenberry. 

Kristi and Josh are sure enjoying the festival. 

One of the biggest treats for me personally was the Beary Tales Pie Kitchen, although it did make me miss the ride even more. 

And seeing how fast the Beary Tales merchandise was flying off the shelves it makes you realize a lot of people have a fondness for the ride. 

Really nice decorations

 Moo

As you can see, the festival is VERY popular, which is absolutely great to see. Please support these kinds of things so they will come back!!! 

Even with the crowds, the lines for the food items were no more than 10 minutes or so. The employees were great all day. 

Of course the Wine and Craft Brew Tasting was back in the Wilderness Dance Hall. 

We tried some great wines and my favorites were a nice Cabernet and the Boysenberry Wine. While most preferred the Boysenberry Cider to the Boysenberry Beer, I enjoyed the beer a bit more. 

The Wine Tasting is such a great escape from the hustle and bustle of the park and we enjoyed catching up with some of our favorite theme park site friends from Theme Park Adventure and The Coaster Guy. 

Oh yeah, there was food ... lots and lots of food. So much food that we really didn't even have enough room in our belly's to try it all and all really feel we need another visit to try everything else. 

The Fun Bun!!! We actually brought one of these home, and it was just as good the following morning. 

Basically, the Fun Bun is a Cinnamon Roll, fried in Funnel Cake Batter and topped with a Boysenberry topping. It's amazing. 

Boysenberry Wings (sorry, we ate some before we took a picture) and  Boysenberry Trifle. 

Alligator Bites and Cheese Curds. One thing I would suggest on these, have a non-fries option. We got two of each for our group which meant we had a plethora of fries left over. 

Finally this year you can take home your own bottle(s) of the Boysenberry BBQ sauce. At only $5.99 a bottle it's a great deal, and with a Season pass Discount it's even better. =)

The Beary Tales shirts were flying off the shelf. It was hard to find the black shirt below in my size by 1:00pm. 

Other things included Boysenberry Cotton Candy, Boysenberry Honey, Coffee Mugs, Hats, Berry Festival Shirts, Magnets, Key Chains and much more. 

Knott's also held their first Boysenberry Pie Eating Contest. 

The always entertaining Mayor and his lovely wife. We actually got some one-on-one time with them in the Wine Tasting and they invited us over for dinner and Boysenberry Wine. Well, we had to have our people's, people's, people call their people's, people's, people. 
Since we have no people, I guess we'll just have to be happy to see them around town. =)

While the MC from Major League Eating may have gone on a bit (a lot) too long given the 90 degree temperatures, it was still great fun. 

Having some fun introducing the competitors

After about a 45 minute pre-show, it's time to get to eating. 

It was honestly quite entertaining seeing the different strategies and how these people get so much food consumed in such a short time. 

Joey Chestnut who held 35 world records prior to this competition

Now 36

And with that another day at the Knott's Boysenberry Festival comes to an end. 

Thanks so much to Knott's for having us out and for the tremendous hospitality. We truly appreciate it. And as always it was really nice seeing such great friends as Jim from Westcoaster, Tim from Knott's Network, Kolby from Kolby Konnection, Rick and Johanna from TPA and Kurt and his lovely wife from The Coaster Guy. 

We'll have a general park update later this week. Thanks for reading. 

---

---

If you enjoyed this update please share with your friends and make sure you "like" us on Facebook and "follow" us on Twitter and Instagram. 

If you have any comments, please share them below.