SWAMPSCOTT — Residents of all ages filled Monument Avenue Sunday for the town’s strawberry festival, an annual tradition complete with a parade, a concert, and surprisingly few strawberries.
“We wanted to see a few more strawberries,” said Jessica Donohue, 35, who brought her two children, Isabella, three, and Mason, one, to the event. “But we got strawberries in the lemonade so we’re happy.”
Donohue said she and her family are relatively new to the town, having moved just two years ago, but were excited about attending the festival for the first time this year, after it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. The highlight for Donohue’s children was the parade, which was led by a fire truck and featured a marching band.
Also featured in the parade were Deadpool, Spiderman, Ironman, Mickey Mouse, Goofy, and a unicycle pin juggler.
“The kids loved the parade,” Donohue said. “It was very exciting.”
The majority of the strawberries at the festival could be found with the Swampscott High School football team, who were dishing out servings of strawberry shortcake at five dollars each, with the funds going to the team. The strawberries were provided by Tony Lena’s sandwich shop, while Brett Henry Catering of Nahant provided the shortcakes.
Those shortcakes are what keep Colleen Civiello, 48, and her two daughters Angelina, 14, and Bridgid, seven, coming back each year. Civiello said her family had been coming since Angelina was a baby and had never seen a crowd as large as the one that gathered on the town hall lawn Sunday.
“It’s nice to see people […] coming back out after COVID,” she said. “It’s important for the town.”
Beyond Big Blue, numerous vendors at the festival sold food — with the line for beer snaking down the majority of the lawn. One disappointed resident said around 5:40 p.m. that “they ran out of beer.”
Among the festival-goers Sunday was Lisa Vousboukis Sandler, who told this reporter “I’m old enough to be your grandmother” when asked for her age.
Sandler said she grew up in Swampscott and tries to attend the festival every year.
“This was my backyard growing up,” she said. “I love our ocean and our town.”
As for the question of how the festival got its name, Sandler wasn’t sure.
“It’s always been called that,” she said.
