Exclusive: Strawberry Festival heading back to Roseville

Some things are just too sweet to let die.Almost a year after organizers announced they were ending the Placer County Strawberry Festival, a new team is set to resurrect the spirit of the event later this year, officials confirmed this week.Local business owner John Javidan, the promoter behind events including Downtown Tuesday Nights, said he was bringing a similar ruby-red fruit-themed event to the Placer County Fairgrounds on May 9 and 10 – Mother's Day weekend."We've always liked the Strawberry Festival," Javidan said. "It went away last year and the fairgrounds approached me about working with them to bring it back. A lot of people are really excited about it."This time called the Roseville Strawberry Festival, the event will feature more of a "harvest theme" than the previous iteration, he said, with more local farmers invited to participate.Javidan said the new festival would include musical entertainment, arts, crafts, food, games and contests. But he said he aimed to increase the role of strawberries."The theme is, we're bringing the strawberry back to the Strawberry Festival," he said. "All the vendors will have to have a strawberry theme. You can't just come into the event non-strawberry related."The Placer County Strawberry Festival ended its 17-year run last year due to rising costs, then-organizer Becki Carlson said at the time.The festival had become one of the largest annual events in the region at its peak, with 65,000 people attending in 2005. In addition to strawberry-themed food, it included a carnival, rides and entertainment; the 2007 event featured boy-band sensation the Jonas Brothers.The original festival started in 1990 as a strawberry-themed street festival in Roseville's Old Town designed to bring in shoppers. Carlson became involved as an organizer in 1996, and eventually bought the event from its founders. To accommodate growth, it moved the fairgrounds in 2001. At one point, organizers estimated the economic impact of the festival on the area at $6 million, but attendance slipped in the last few years.In an e-mail this week, Carlson noted the loss of the event was a "disappointment" to many, including nonprofit groups that benefited from a revenue-sharing program. "In the event industry, it is said that it is one of the highest compliments for someone to take an idea from your event and create another," she wrote. "I guess the compliment goes to the volunteers, the nonprofit organizations, family members and friends that have helped over the years to make the Strawberry Festival one of the best that's nationally recognized."Javidan said the goal is to make the new festival an annual event.