The 33nd annual Round Valley Blackberry Festival will be held Saturday and Sunday, August 22 and 23, 2015, at the Blackberry Festival grounds in Covelo. Sponsored by Friends of the Round Valley Public Library, the festival features arts and crafts, live music, wine tasting, kid’s activities, blackberry delicacies and souvenirs, not to mention a square dance, a country breakfast, a 5k and 10k run and a car show!
The grounds include a large wisteria-covered semi-circular arbor with a bandstand in the middle, all originally built for the first festival in 1983. Inspired by the delicious blackberries that grow all around Round Valley, the festival was begun in order to provide an outlet for local citizens to sell their handiwork, to boost the Round Valley economy by promoting tourism, and to unite the people of Round Valley in a common cause. Today the festival continues to be guided by those three goals. It was originally founded by a group of local residents under the nonprofit auspices of the Round Valley Chamber of Commerce, with the Mendocino County Chamber of Commerce providing $1,600 in seed money, but it took the hard work of many volunteers to pull it off. More than three decades later, the Round Valley Blackberry Festival is going stronger than ever.
WHERE: Festival grounds are located at the corner of Main and Grange Streets, in the park of the historic Round Valley Flour Mills in Covelo.
MORE INFO: RoundValleyBlackberryFestival.com