Knott’s Berry Farm’s Boysenberry Festival 2018 Strikes Gold!

For the past 3 years, Knott’s Berry Farm has been making our mouths water and our stomachs growl with their delectable food and drink offerings at the annual Boysenberry Festival (first year was called Knott’s Berry Bloom). Coming into their 4th year, nothing is any different except our level of excitement has grown exponentially in the weeks prior to the event.

In the current trend of events at The Farm, there is plenty of things to see and do! We are always thoroughly impressed with the high standard of entertainment offerings and the quality of the specialty foods. Below, you will find some of the details of this years Boysenberry Festival!

BE WARNED! IF YOU ARE READING THIS ON AN EMPTY STOMACH, YOU WILL BE HUNGRY AT THE END!

THE DECOR

As you walk into Ghost Town, Boysenberries adorn the iconic Ghost Town sign. A perfect visual representation of how the boysenberry have taken over Ghost Town for the event.

In all honesty, the decorations are rather minimal. But this is a good thing in our eyes. Why cover up the natural beauty and appeal that Ghost Town offers with needless decorations. Knott’s does a great job letting Ghost Town’s natural beauty shine while still adding accents of the bright purple of the boysenberries. The addition of beautiful fresh spring flowers doesn’t hurt either!

THE FOOD AND DRINK

This is the heart and soul of this event! Throughout Ghost Town, you will find several food stations where you can try different boysenberry infused items!

If you’re smart, you will buy one of the tasting cards! For $30, you get 8 different food options to choose from. The wonderful change this year is that each tab on the tasting card is not designated to any particular food! So if you wanted to have 4 helpings of the Boysenberry Quesadillas, you can do so with a smile on your face. The tasting card brings tremendous value to the event and we highly recommend it for any visit. Lastly, this year the tasting cards have moved away from papers that get hole punched and are now a lanyard with a laminated tasting card with removable tabs. We love to see the quality of such items increase because it makes guests feel important (because it’s in a lanyard) and they no longer have to worry about folding up in a pocket and potentially losing it.

Over in the Wilderness Dance Hall, you can once again find the Wine and Craft Beer Tasting!

There is a myriad of options that await you here. Even the famous Boysenberry Beer and Cider. HINT, add the two together to make a 50/50!

The food options this year were spectacular. Every year, we are so excited to hear what new delicious items they place on the menu. Our favorites were the Grilled Sausage (with Boysenberry BBQ Sauce and Boysenberry Relish) and the Boysenberry Elote! Both outstanding in their own right.

Some of the other fantastic food offerings Knott’s has this year are: Boysenberry Quesadilla, Boysenberry Pierogies, Slow Cooked Boysenberry Short Ribs, Boysenberry Chicken Wings, Boysenberry Boba, Boysenberry Hummus, and a Boysenberry Coconut Macaroon! Apart from the specifically designated stations, practically every restaurant, store and food service location has their own specialty boysenberry items as well. One of our favorites is Boyseneberry Soda! And if you love the Boysenberry Concentrate, but it has too much sugar, they now have a SUGAR FREE OPTIONS! REJOICE!

If we wanted anything to change about the food , we would love to see some of the more popular items become part of the year round menu. Because we are greedy like that.

THE ENTERTAINMENT

With every event, Knott’s continues to push the limits of how much entertainment one park can hold! There is always so much to do, that it’s simply impossible to do it all in one day.

One of the newest additions, and our favorite, was Tied Up In Knott’s: A Tribute To The Farm. This was a wonderful display of art inspired by the park and it’s history.

You can actually buy the art on the wall! But if you’re pockets aren’t that deep, you can head over to the Mystery Lodge Store and purchase prints of the art that’s on display.

At the end of Main Street Ghost Town, you will find Old MacDonald’s Barn. Like many of the other iterations of this area, it houses live stock. Once again, another wonderful addition allowing kids to be hands on!

Over at the Calico Town Hall, you can find a video dedicated to Walter and Cordelia Knott! It’s tells the story of how they came to know Buena Park as home. Also, how Knott’s Berry Farm became the park it is today! Such interesting history and a well made video. If you love history, this is a must see.

The biggest show during the event is Snoopy’s Boysenberry Jamboree!

This is essentially the same show as last year, but it hasn’t lost any of it’s charm. I would have love to have seen some portions of the show change since it came back from the previous year. Just to freshen it up.

Yuk Yuk! Dog Germs! Yuk!

This show had all the kids on their feet dancing and having a great time. There’s even a portion of the show where the characters and dancers come off the stage and dance with the kids themselves. It always puts a smile on our faces when seeing kids smile ear to ear when they have Snoopy, Linus or even Charlie Brown hold their hands and dance. Pure theme park magic at it’s best.

I would love to see a new iteration of this show return next year because I would never think about excluding Snoopy from the fun festivities!

There was a ton more to do and see throughout Ghost Town and even Camp Snoopy. But we simply did not have the time to experience it all! We just have to go back and fill our tummies up once again and enjoy the wonderful entertainment.

Here is a list of Entertainment options that are offered at Knott’s, that we did not get to experience!

Old Time Melodrama – Knott’s pays tribute to its past at the Legendary Bird Cage Theatre with a special presentation of the musical comedy melodrama with a surprising boysenberry twist!
Krazy Kirk and the Hillbillies – A group of krazy talented performers will have guests toe tappin’, vine dancin’ and knee-slappin’ to a comedic country music show at the Wagon Camp stage.
Ghost Town Miners – The joy of scrumptious food and country music encompass guests as the Ghost Town Miners take the stage in a fun musical performance.
Easter Beagle – Spring has sprung all around the park including in Camp Snoopy where guests can meet everyone’s favorite beagle as he celebrates the season.

THE SHOPPING/MERCH

Want to go home with your very own Boysenberry plant? Well you can! At the entrance of the park you will find a replica of Walter Knott’s original berry stand where you can purchase a plant to take home.

Nikki really wanted to take a plant home. But with the life span of plants in our home, we wouldn’t see one berry off the plant before it dies.

As always, there are cute shirts and plush Snoopy dolls to purchase to commemorate your full stomachs! We took home a Snoopy and he proudly sits out year round to continually remind us of Boysenberry Festival.

New this year, there are many bath products to take home. From a purple bathrobe, to a boysenberry scented bath bomb! We love to see the team at Knott’s stretch out to different merchandise items! Such a fun variety of items to remember your trip.

OVERALL

Knott’s Berry Farm continues to create home grown fun for the whole family. From the food and entertainment, Boysenberry Festival continues to grow and be a significant rival to the Food and Wine Festival at Disney California Adventure. In the years to come, I would love to see the event expand even more! It would be amazing if Boysenberry Festival became PARK WIDE! Finding Boysenberry foods throughout Boardwalk and even Fiesta Village would be amazing. Not to mention it would cut down on some of the congestion Ghost Town experiences on busy days from people waiting in the queues to get food. Even with the multitude of options available for guests, we think there is room to expand and create even more experience families can talk about for years to come!