58th Strawberry Festival Held on Monument Circle Thursday
Source: MilosCirkovic / Getty
INDIANAPOLIS — The 58th Annual Strawberry Festival took place Thursday on Monument Circle. The event is put on by the Christ Church Cathedral with proceeds going to organizations in Indiana.
The Strawberry Festival is known for its trademark strawberry shortcake that they sell either on its own or can be bought with “The Works” which includes ice cream, syrup, and whipped topping for $10.
The festival started at 9a.m. and lasts until either 4 p.m. or the cakes are sold out. According to Elise Shrock, Christ Church Cathedral Director of Communications says that they made 15,320 shortcakes and they anticipated selling out. She estimates they were going to see around 30,000 visitors during the festival.
In preparation for the Strawberry Festival the Cathedral organizes a team of hundreds of volunteers to help prepare and serve the cakes, as well as set up, tear down, and clean the location around the church.
Once the event has concluded and the money is tallied up, the Christ Church will cover the costs of running the event with money raised. All remaining funds are distributed to charities primarily focusing on helping women and children. Previous year’s recipients include Outreach Incorporated, Exodus Refugee, and Coburn Place.
As for the cakes themselves, Shrock says that they used over four tons of strawberries this year. They will also use hundreds of buckets of ice cream and whipped topping as well. The cakes are baked in the church’s basement.
The festival has attracted Hoosiers downtown for years. Donna, who grew up just east of Plainfield, has been coming to the Strawberry Festival for 25 years. “It’s old fashioned. It’s what strawberry shortcake is supposed to be like.”
Alicia, who had been to the festival off and on for 15 years waited in line for 30 minutes to cake for herself and Donna. When asked about her favorite memory of the strawberry festival she talked about seeing the amount of people who pass through monument circle for a slice of cake.
“Sitting in the corporate office over Anthem. We would just sit and watch the lines come and go. We would go ‘Oh my gosh.’ We were amazed at how many people actually come downtown for this.”
The festival ended up selling out of cakes around 2 p.m.
