Raspberry Days Festival


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 The first weekend in August is the annual Bear Lake Raspberry Days Festival. Thursday through Saturday with events including parade, craft fair, fireworks, 5k fun run, golf scramble, live concerts, and pie eating contests. All activities involve everyone who wants to participate. The environment of the festival is fun, enjoyable, relaxing, and entertaining.

For the first time, I attended almost all of the activities and events they had going on. The first day included a parade that was four blocks long full of the normal businesses from the local area. The entire sides of the streets were covered in little kids looking to catch some candy. Even adults in their 40’s were walking out in the roads gathering their favorite treats. Throughout the entire parade, I did not recognize most of the food businesses from Garden City. About half were associated with ice cream shakes that included the areas famous raspberries. One of the recently new restaurants called Zipz, were handing out mini shakes to everyone on the side of the roads. This was a great marketing tool for them as their business slogan is, “least famous shakes.”

The most popular event going on all three days is the Craft Fair. There are approximately 50 tents located throughout a field. All of which are trying to sell food, clothing, art, or new custom products. About half of the booths included food because everyone wants food at a craft fair. A couple I noticed were selling hemp oil and CBD cream. The lady behind the one booth placed many different smelling CBD creams on the tables that said what they are used for. She was approximately in her 30’s. Some examples were, headaches, dry skin, and wrinkle free eye lids. Each of the creams had different smells. I believe this CBD oil brings the organic idea to the table but I am not sure if it cures all of the symptoms of the skin.

Most of the food stands were the usual kettle corn, corndogs, flower chips, and hamburgers. All of which have to be prepared beforehand or bought in order to be cooked and sold to the customer. I would say around three or four steps were taken to get the food ready to be sold. A couple of the lemonade stands were advertising fresh fruits in their drinks. I bought one with limes, lemons, and strawberries. They seemed to be pretty fresh but could have been frozen for a while. I did not see any other fresh fruits or vegetables being sold at the booths. It was mainly a craft fair so that would explain why there were no booths selling fresh food. Around five booths were related to dog accessories. One booth was selling bandanas that hook to the dog collar. I found this a great idea that I have never seen before. Another dog booth was selling treats in all flavors.

Most of the booths around did not have anything to do with farm related products. Those were the clothing booths. All types of clothing from men’s hats, shirts, sweatshirts to women’s shirts, shoes, skirts, and dresses. The clothing booths were not the popular stores coming to the craft fair. All of them were small family owned from around northern Utah. A few other booths not related to farming were hand drawn pictures and small art sculptures. These groups were the older generation in their 50’s trying to sell their products that look like a hobby for them. About half of the booths had a banner for their business name or product. The rest would be very small businesses looking to spread their product or in the beginning stages of starting a business.

Throughout the entire craft fair, there was live music being played. Three older gentlemen were playing 70’s and 80’s country music. I was able to sit down and listen to them play the violin and guitar. All of the songs were enjoyable and focused towards American freedom.

The Bear Lake Raspberry Days Festival is a popular event to attend especially if you love water activities. You will find many boaters and beach bums strolling into town to look around the craft fair. It is a family fun event and people from all over multiple states come to play.

Picture - https://bearlakefun.com/bear-lake-raspberry-days-this-week/

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