MARYSVILLE – Singers and dancers dominated the stage at the Marysville Strawberry Festival Talent Show Thursday night.
The 88th annual festival continues today through Sunday.
Friday, The Market and Kiwanis Beer Garden open. The carnival started Thursday.
Saturday is the busiest day of the weeklong event, highlighted by the Grand Parade at 7:45 p.m. with Harv Juvie the grand marshal.
But a lot is going on leading up to that.
The Car Show at Asbery Field goes from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Market in the Park at Asbery Field is open Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The Rose Planting Ceremony with Portland Rose Parade officials honoring local leaders takes place at Totem Middle School at 10:30 a.m.
The carnival is at Marysville Middle School. Its hours vary depending on the weather.
The Marysville Kiwanis Beer Garden is open from noon to 10 p.m. Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Proceeds go toward college scholarships and local youth programs.
This year’s big new attraction is professional CP “Big Time” Wrestling at Asbery Field. Free shows will take place at 1:30-3 p.m. and again from 4-5:30 p.m.
Various Strawberry Shortcake Eating Contests will take place at Asbery Field from 1:30-3 p.m. For $5 a person contestants are matched up against others their same age. The action then moves downtown for the Kiddies Parade at 6 p.m. on State Avenue starting at 7th Street, followed by the Grand Parade.
Free entertainment is also provided through Sunday at Asbery Field.
Saturday, Lonely Hearts Club plays music of the Beatles from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Fabulous Murphtones play 1960s-‘90s music from 2-4 p.m. with classic rock band Aardvarks United performing from 5-7 p.m., ending just in time for the Grand Parade.
A couple of rock bands will perform Sunday. From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. it’s No Buffer, with No Rules playing after that from 3-5 p.m.
At the talent show, Charles Bednarz sang the classic “Oh Danny Boy,” Marvin Fritze an original song “It’s Raining Everywhere but Here,” Katryna Harris another classic “At Last, Lorna Burns the country song “Joleen” and Raya Jakobson “Look Up Child.”
Before the intermission, younger contestants like Bailey Winter sang “Unwritten” and Zoe Campbell “A Million Dreams.”
Most of the younger participants performed dance: Mila Dixon to “A Million Dreams,” Grace McShane to “Willow,” Penelope Distefano to “Fabulous,” Vivian Palmer to “Red Violin,” Ellie Martin to “Love Song,” Ashlynn Hagar to “Skim” and Parker Distefano to “Hush Hush Baby.”
The only group dance performers this year were Adriana Montemayor, Zoe Martinez, Emery Cooper, Harper Gow, Kensington Walton, Millie Ross, Aria King and Grace Reagan to “Yellow Polka Dot Bikini.”
The only dancer in the older division was Aimee Brotten to the legendary Queen song “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
A number of pianists also performed: Reif Stevenson did “Concerto 21,” Jonah Werdell “Fur Elise,” Xander Corbett did the original song “Always You” and performing a duet of “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” from the movie Mary Poppins were Talia Gibbs and Stacey Eliason. Also Alejandro Morales played a medley of oldies “La Bamba” and “Twist and Shout.”
Three instrumentalists also took the stage: Ava Drier played violin to “Chandelier,” Joe Zak played “Misty” on trumpet and the duet of Ian Ramey and Sophie Moorman played banjo and fiddle to “Blackberry Blossom.”
Last year’s champion Tobin Randall sang and played guitar to an original song about Marysville called “Big City Small Town.”
The Marysville Strawberry Festival senior and junior royalty courts, along with festival volunteers, led the audience in an interactive dance to start the program.
Alyssa Bojador sang the National Anthem, and the NJROTC provided the color guard.
Judges were: Javier Aranda of Applebee’s, Lisa Konkel of Frito Lay, Bekki Bingham of the Marysville School District, Rob Watson of Marysville Toyota and Jason Schilling of Coastal Farm and Ranch. Ted Wright again was the emcee, and Marcy Giesler represented Maryfest as the event director for the 26th year.
