VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The Pungo Strawberry Festival, a community staple for decades, has been cancelled again.
This marks the 5th consecutive cancellation of the annual festival.
Organizers said they need a new team and a suitable venue to put on the festival in the future.
The festival's statement is as follows:
"The board of directors of the Pungo Strawberry Festival sadly announce there will be no festival in 2024.
We are on a hiatus until we can assemble a new team and a suitable venue avails itself.
We have been a casualty of our own success, and we are proud to have organized 36 years of a beloved, legacy festival in downtown Pungo with the support of the community and the city"
Last year, the festival was cancelled after organizers said they weren't able to secure land use agreements needed for parking. They explained that some private landowners no longer wanted to participate, leaving them with inadequate parking space for festival attendees.
The 2022 Pungo Strawberry Festival's cancellation was also related to parking issues.
The 2021 and 2020 festivals were cancelled due to COVID-19.
News 3's Leondra Head spoke to Tammy Burroughs Hindle, a board member of the Pungo Strawberry Festival about the future of the festival.
Her parents helped co-found the festival back in the 1980s.
"It does have a wonderful legacy and it did start out as a country fair," Hindle said. "It became a wonderful tradition in Pungo as it grew. The downside is it grew too much. Traffic gets really backed up, and people get aggravated. I know there’s a lot of love for the festival and people want to attend. But there’s another side to planning and logistics that’s challenging."
"Is it realistic to have the festival in Pungo next year?" News 3's Leondra Head asked Hindle.
"I don’t foresee that, and I feel like we’ve exhausted all our scenarios to be able to close the street and have parking on the perimeter," Hindle said. "But we’re definitely not going to throw in the towel."
Food & Entertainment
Why 2023 Pungo Strawberry Festival was canceled
Organizers say they’ve been in talks with the city of Virginia Beach about a new location.
"We spent time meeting with city leaders who have been supportive trying to identify a new venue," Hindle said. "One of them being the Sportsplex and the Military Museum in Pungo, but the parking was always something we couldn’t nail down."
"Will you all consider the Sportsplex or the museum as a venue?" Head asked Hindle.
"Yes, but to keep Pungo in the name and to keep the brand, we really need to stay in the Pungo area which is a huge challenge," Hindle said. "It would be tough to squeeze everybody back in Pungo Village."
But she says things could change."We definitely would consider another venue and switching the name up but that’s going to take some time."
News 3's Angela Bohon followed up with the Military Aviation Museum. Director Keegan Chetwynd said that the museum has offered to host the festival and is still open to the idea.
A spokesperson for the City sent a statement that read, in part:
"Plans for events of this nature need to consider parking, public safety, and transportation among other considerations for guest safety... the City will consider plans that festival organizers may bring forward in the future."
