It’s finally time for one of the berry best Southern California food festivals! The Knott’s Boysenberry Festival has triumphantly returned for the 2024 season, beckoning both seasoned locals and adventurous foodies from all over to sink their teeth into the best Boysenberry bites. Prepare your palates for not only inventive one-of-a-kind boysenberry food and drink creations but also berry fun activities and world-class family-friendly entertainment.
The 2024 festival runs daily from March 8 through April 7, plus weekends until April 28, 2024 and offers more than 75 recipes with a combination of returning fan favorites and more than two dozen all-new items— many of which are available on the Boysenberry Festival tasting card!
The Knott’s Boysenberry Festival tasting card ($55) includes six tastes from an extensive list of Boysenberry-inspired items. The Boysenberry Brunch at Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Dinner restaurant also makes a return.
I’ve put together a short video showcasing some highlights from the Boysenberry Festival this year:
Follow along as we cover everything boysenberry:
THE BERRY BEST
With so many items to choose from, it’s hard to pick just six to fill out a tasting card. With surprisingly large portions, you won’t leave hungry no matter what you choose, but we’ve selected six items we think are the berry best of the Boysenberry Festival:
1. Boysenberry Pulled Pork over Pastel de Elote
An instant favorite, the mixture of sweet corn and savory boysenberry pulled pork elevated this to our top spot. The Pastel de Elote is similar to classic American cornbread, but it’s prepared a little differently— we could eat a whole pan of it.
2. Beef and Chorizo Boysenberry Chili Poutine with Cheese Curds
A surprise contender, the Beef and Chorizo Boysenberry Chili that tops the fries in this dish is rich with just the right amount of kick! Even though this resembles chili-cheese fries, Knott’s is calling this one a “poutine”— it’s in every way a unique spin on a classic comfort food.
3. Double Stuffed Baked Potato with Boysenberry BBQ Pulled Pork and Green Onions
Miner’s Mac and Spuds is quickly becoming a favorite location, now serving this incredible double stuffed potato topped with Boysenberry BBQ pulled pork. Anything with Boysenberry BBQ is likely to be a winner, but paired with a creamy double stuffed potato quickly elevated this dish to the top 3.
4. Caprese Stuffed Portobello with a Boysenberry Balsamic Drizzle
Our vegetarian readers are likely salivating just looking at this huge cheese-stuffed portabello mushroom. An unanticipated winner, the complex savory flavor of this stuffed mushroom is like nothing else we tried at Boysenberry Festival. Did we mention it’s huge? I hope you really like portabello mushrooms.
5. Boysenberry Sausage on a Hoagie with a Boysenberry Sauerkraut Slaw
A returning favorite, but this time with a new twist. It’s the classic Boysenberry sausage we know and love, but with a sweet Boysenberry Sauerkraut Slaw…a match made in Boysenberry heaven. A side note: ours was prepared with both slaw and boysenberry mustard, but I was led to believe it’s intended to be prepared with one or the other (not both). Delicious, either way.
6. Lemon Bar with a Boysenberry Compote
The Boysenberry Festival is always filled with incredible desserts, but out of the small sample we tried, there was something special about this year’s Lemon Bar. The bar itself has a rich, creamy, lemon flavor while the Boysenberry compote on top adds just enough sweetness to create a deliciously complex snack.
Pro-tip: if any adults want to pair drinks with these, many adult beverages are available on the tasting card. If you have a large party, purchasing a tasting card just for drinks can be a great idea.
While those were the favorites of the dishes we tried, there were many more that just barely missed this list. Seems we’ll be needing to make multiple trips to the Boysenberry Festival! We had a chat with Wilf Seymour, the Director of Food & Beverage about his favorite items coming to the festival this year:
Here’s a gallery of all the food items to salivate over:
Boysenberry Festival Entertainment
Knott’s Preserved
Celebrate the heritage of Knott’s Berry Farm with Knott’s Preserved, a musical journey through the history of the park. From the ghost town of Calico to the Seaside Boardwalk of the Roaring ’20s, this Calico Mine Stage show commemorates the 100-plus-year history of Knott’s Berry Farm.
Definitely don’t miss this show, folks. It’s yet another gorgeously crafted classic musical stage show from the talented entertainment team at Knott’s Berry Farm. We guarantee you’ll leave humming the earworm of a theme song…
Riverboat Revenge
Following a kooky cast of characters setting off on a boat race on the Mississippi, Riverboat Revenge is a great display of the strength of the simplest of Knott’s shows: the melodrama. Cheer for the hero, boo the villain, and laugh your sides off with this hysterical show in the Bird Cage Theater.
Boysenberry Fun and Games
At the Calico Mine Stage, a variety of diversions are held throughout the day, including a pie-eating contest. There’s nothing quite like shoving your face into a whole pie…and managing to empty the dish!
Other games can be a bit silly, like stuffing balloons into oversized purple pajamas!
Old MacDonald’s Barn
At the end of Main Street, a petting zoo pays tribute to one of Knott’s original attractions.
History of the Boysenberry
Inside Ghost Town Hall, a video documents the history of the berry that spawned a theme park.
Knott’s Boysenberry Festival Merchandise
While Knott’s is adding boysenberries to every food item imaginable, the merchandise team is doing the same thing with hats, mugs, t-shirts, plushes, and this year, even slippers!
Merchandise Manager Karl Busche was showing off just how stylish the slippers are while giving us a look at the Betty Boysenberry plush. Apparently, Betty was originally part of a Knott’s Berry Farm advertisement, although it must be particularly obscure because there doesn’t seem to be any information about her on the internet. Perhaps one of our readers has heard of her?
She reminds us of Miss Minutes from Marvel’s Disney+ series, Loki. Although, she’s (probably) not evil and (definitely) much more delicious.
As always, there’s plenty of purple for purchase.
This vintage-styled Spirit Jersey is sure to be popular:
This adorable boysenberry sipper is also available with an ICEE at the park’s various ICEE locations or with a Berry Smoothie at Miner’s Mac and Spuds.
Knott’s is continuing to add more food items to their marketplace offerings, and this year they’ve added more candy, jerky, syrups, sauces, and everything in between.
If you’d like to purchase several of these items together, the replica Knott’s Berry Market at the front of the park will package them into a gift bag.
Also, if you’d like to grow your own boysenberries, plants are for sale at a booth on the Gold Mine Trail.
Knott’s Boysenberry Festival Craft Fair
Throughout Ghost Town, local crafts-makers and artisans have set up shop for the Boysenberry Festival Crafts Fair. Each booth is filled with unique handmade items, many of which have become Festival favorites like the crocheted boysenberry pie hats.
You never know what you might find in the various booths.
The honey booth has a real beehive in it!
Definitely don’t miss the live glass blowing and chainsaw carver demonstrations!
Tied Up in Knott’s Art Gallery
The Boysenberry Festival art gallery returns again this year with all new pieces from local artists. The gallery is located in the Bear-y Tales shop, the Berry Factory. We’re delighted to see many returning artists like Richard Wallace and Sam Carter.
Unveiling the Knott’s Hotel
We received a tour of the Knott’s Hotel during our festival preview, which is just finishing up a multi-million-dollar transformation. Most of the hotel has received a major refresh, from the Great Room-style lobby to the guest rooms and even the new Thirty Acres Restaurant.
For the Boysenberry Festival, Knott’s is offering a Boysenberry Festival hotel package, which includes one-day park admission for each guest, one single-use fast-lane voucher for each guest, one tasting card per room, hotel parking, and an overnight stay.
Something to be aware of for the Boysenberry Festival is the major overhaul in the Camp Snoopy area. Several attractions and entertainment normally open for the festival are closed this year but are expected to re-open in time for Summer. Read more about the transformation here:
Reimagined Camp Snoopy Set to Open at Knott’s Berry Farm in 2024
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Let’s Hear From You!
Is anyone else feeling hungry? With so many new (and returning) items for this year’s Boysenberry Festival, we’re excited to try them all! What’s caught your eye? Will you be attending the festival this year? And do you think this is the best of the SoCal food festivals? Let us know in the comments below.
A big thank you to Mike Kindrich who helped me put together this year’s guide!
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