Islanders jam out at Strawberry Festival

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, July 23, 2025

Crowds once again jam-packed the streets of Vashon town for a sweet Strawberry Festival weekend, enjoying the fruits of the island’s best food, entertainment and community spirit.

They boogied down at Ober Park and other stages sprawled across the town core. They downed Heritage Museum ice cream, Eagles pancakes and lots of other local food and drinks. They vaulted high from trampolines, gawked over classic cars and cheered for their favorites in the island’s annual Saturday parade. (See a full photo gallery here.)

Voice of Vashon’s Craig Beles and Geoff Fletcher introduced that Saturday procession, which included island standbys such as the Vashon-Maury Co-op Preschool, Dove Project, Vashon Care Network, Vashon Library, Tool Library, Vashon Seals, Vashon Land Trust, Camp Burton and many, many, many more.

The cleverly-named Washington State Fairies — Tami Brockway Joyce and Jennifer Potter — greeted the crowd, and festival parade Grand Marshal Doug Snyder waved to the crowd as he passed.

Always the man behind the scenes, Snyder and his selection as Grand Marshal “is rooted in every principle that guides this tradition — years of service, deep community impact and a spirit of generosity,” the announcers said.

Seniors from the Vashon Senior Center boogied down the street in a dance led by island artist and dance instructor Sarah Howard, and island band VasHonK drummed, tooted and sang all the way down.

“This is a Vashon group that obviously has a lot of instruments, and they don’t care about how much talent anybody has,” the announcers said.

Of course, there were the animals: Horses led by the island Olympus Pony Club, a cow from the Vashon Island Growers Association and live bees carried by the Vashon Island Beekeepers Association.

Denizens of the watery depths marched with the Vashon Island Marine Band and Procession, who once again dressed up as crabs, squid, nudibranchs and other sea creatures. They were followed by feathery creatures shaking their tail feathers from the Vashon Bird Alliance.

Men in black marched alongside UFOs for the Maury Island Incident Group, representing the famous local story that gave rise to a sci-fi film franchise. Mo Davis played on a real pinball machine aboard a vehicle representing the island’s new pinball museum, the Den of Pin. And a legion of tractors — many proclaiming Vashon’s progressive values — rolled and rumbled down the road.

Vashon’s Backbone Campaign carried giant orca inflatables and signs calling for action to protect regional wildlife, to end Israel’s siege on Gaza and to welcome immigrants in the United States. Hunks from Vashon Strong pulled their truck on ropes, and athletes from the Vashon Island Rowing Club worked out on erg machines carried by their vehicle.

Among the many fabulous parade entries, one beloved tried-and-true element of the parade was missing this year: the Vashon Thriftway Shopping Cart Drill Team.

Bill Hart, store manager, explained the drill team’s absence on Monday: the store employee who had long led the drill team had informed Thriftway that he no longer wanted to do the job, but hadn’t give the store enough notice to find a replacement.

The drill team requires practice after 9 p.m. — when the grocery store closes — in the store’s parking lot, Hart said.

Next year, Hart said, the drill team will be back, if the store is able to find someone to step into the leadership role.

Friday through Saturday, Vashon town burst with food, activities and entertainment. Zoologist Scott Petersen, better known as the Reptile Man, introduced island youth to some of his friends — including a common snapping turtle, bearded dragon, alligator and milk snake. Islanders grooved and gyrated to the sounds of the Portage Fill Band, Bowie Rex & His Boogie Army, Publish the Quest, Little Creatures, Benjamin Hunter and more.

Among the performances of the ever-strange, ever-earnest Jawbone Puppet Theater was a drama of modern-day politics, which called upon audience members to shout out their hopes for the future of the country in order to revive an American spirit that had become gravely sick from a history of imperialism, racism and unchecked capitalism.

The celebration also saw a visit from King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, who in a statement said: “What an incredible weekend meeting with District 8 residents on Vashon-Maury Island … I was so glad to see so many islanders and off-island families like mine enjoying what makes Vashon such a great place. Strawberry Fest is the definition of community — coming together to create a sense of place and thriving social cohesion. Thank you for welcoming our family to the festivities yet again.”

This year, four candidates ran to represent Vashon as the Unofficial Mayor, including an anthropomorphic can of food, a fictional safety-conscious raccoon and baby Georgie, born at home on Vashon just before midnight on New Year’s Eve 2023.

But the winner was eight-year-old TK Rose, a dance student at Vashon Center for the Arts and arts enthusiast. He raised more than $11,000 for the Blue Heron Education Center’s Scholarship Fund to keep the arts accessible to all of Vashon’s youth.

At his coronation on the Ober Park Main Stage, a crowd of kids chanted TK’s name, as the fairies — Tami Brockway Joyce and Jennifer Potter — introduced him to the crowd.

“Thanks for donating,” TK told the crowd.

Throughout the weekend, islanders and visitors got to meet with various local organizations at booths lining the highway. The Vashon Health Care District, DispatchHealth and Vashon Island Fire & Rescue had their booths stationed next door to each other near the middle of the festival lineup — a transformation in the relationship between the two island taxing districts which, this time last year, was on the rocks.

Representatives from the Seattle Indian Health Board, which is constructing the Thunderbird Treatment Center on the island to assist those in recovery, distributed a brochure detailing renderings of their upcoming facility, which they said they endeavor to open in spring 2026. The facility broke ground earlier this year.

A total of 259 participants — higher than previous years, according to Per-Lars Blomgren — kicked off Strawberry Festival weekend Saturday morning to “do the Burby” at the 43rd annual 5k run and walk.

Josh Healey and Kristi Williams were the male and female winners, coming in with times of 16:18 and 20:58, respectively.

Honoring Mr. Bill Burby, a former VHS coach and teacher who influenced many young people toward healthy living — and his son Aaron Burby — the race is a fundraiser that provides support for island sports programs and scholarships for local youth to attend college.

And on Sunday, a cavalcade of classic cars careened up Vashon Highway during the classic car parade, going on to park near the Chamber of Commerce where onlookers could “ooh” and “ah” at the annual car show — the second largest of the annual show and parade in the last ten years, according to Chastity Medlock of Island Insurance Center, which presents and produces the show. 90 cars rolled through town in the parade, a sizeable jump in numbers from recent years.

Captain Joe Wubbold III, retired Chief of Operations for the Coast Guard, emceed the parade along with Kate Dowling, executive director of Voice of Vashon.

The car show winners included:

• Best In Show AND People’s Choice: Shawn Madison’s 1961 VW Double Cab

• “Most Vashon:” Jessie Mae Gonzalez’ 1984 Toyota Van Wagon

• Classics: Greg Vornbrock’s 1936 Auburn Cabriolet 852

• Modern: Fred Greer’s 1981 Pontiac Trans Am

• Muscle Car/Hot Rod: Christopher Norton’s 1967 Buick GS400

• Truck & SUVs: Kevin Flick’s 1977 Volvo C303

• Import Classics (Pre-1959): Craig & Mandy Freed’s 1946 Desoto S11

• Imports: David Jack’s 1964 Porsche 356-c

• Custom: Jim & Loree Picket’s 1937 Chevrolet Cabriolet

• Driver’s Raffle: Larry Holliday’s 2004 Chevy Corvette