Carolina Strawberry Festival is biggest and best yet

WALLACE — The 2024 Carolina Strawberry Festival was a huge success, bringing record numbers to downtown Wallace for food and crafts vendors, live music, amusement rides, carnival games, pageant queens, and, of course, plenty of fresh strawberries.

“The best we can tell, we had somewhere around 30,000 people come to the Strawberry Festival this year,” 2024 festival chair Keli Wilson told the Duplin Journal. “It is the most attendees we’ve ever had. To increase attendance by 10,000 over one year is remarkable.”

The festival also had more vendors than ever before, with more than 150 artisans, food trucks, nonprofit organizations and more lining the streets of downtown Wallace. This year, organizers also offered a cooling station inside the building across from the Depot, offering air-conditioning and restrooms to those who needed a respite.

Wallace Mayor Jason Wells appeared on WECT-TV 6’s news broadcast Friday night as well to tout the festival and talk about the economic boon it brings to the town of Wallace and Duplin County as a whole. He was interviewed by longtime news anchors Frances Weller and Jon Evans for a live segment.

“A lot of people have been working very hard to bring this to fruition,” the mayor said.

Friday night saw a record crowd, with locally known artists North Tower Band and the Band of Oz performing. Some food vendors also set up Friday night, which may have helped bring more people to town a day early, said Wallace Town Manager Rob Taylor.

“We had a Saturday crowd on Friday night,” Taylor told Duplin Journal.

There was also the Miss Strawberry pageant, where 23 contestants vied for three titles. In the end, Anne Michael Johnson was crowned Baby Miss Strawberry, Gisel Salinas was Mini Miss Strawberry and Dylan Dixon was Little Miss Strawberry.

A recipe contest and barbecue cook-off by local fire departments took place during the festival as well. For the complete list of winners, see www.facebook.com/CarolinaStrawberryFestival.

Wilson said the festival board is always looking for ways to improve, and is posting a survey for attendees on its Facebook page.

Now that this year’s festival is in the history books, planning will begin in June for the 2025 Carolina Strawberry Festival, Wilson said. “It’s really a year-round effort.”

See more photos from the 2024 Carolina Strawberry Festival on the Duplin Journal Facebook page.