The Flavorful Celebration Will Feature a New Mouthwatering Food Lineup of Boysenberry Inspired Dishes and Entertainment For all Ages.
This spring, join Knott’s as it celebrates the flavorful berry that started it all, the boysenberry, during the much anticipated Knott’s Boysenberry Festival. For the first time ever, the mouthwatering festival is expanding to three weeks, April 1–April 23, with delectable food and drinks, and festive live entertainment. The 23-day food festival features over 70 one-of-a-kind boysenberry inspired dishes, drinks and more, plus foot-stompin’ entertainment, Wine and Craft Brew Tasting Garden, featuring boysenberry and wine, and family fun that everyone will love! For festival goers with a hankerin’ for some live entertainment, the options are endless with live music throughout the park, a nighttime dance party, and brand new shows like, Snoopy’s Boysenberry Jamboree at the Calico Mine Stage. Calico Park in Ghost Town is home to a good ol’ fashion hootenanny featuring pie eating contests, line dancing and country fair festivities with the local Ghost Town townsfolk. The limited-time festival is included with admission to Knott’s Berry Farm.
The year was 1920 when Walter and Cordelia Knott moved to the community of Buena Park Calif. to farm 20 acres of rented land which included harvesting, and selling the first boysenberry, a cross between a loganberry, red raspberry and blackberry, and named the new berry after its originator, Rudolph Boysen. Today, all boysenberries in the world can trace their roots back to Knott’s Berry Farm.
For 2017, the mouthwatering line-up of boysenberry inspired dishes will feature irresistible boysenberry pizza made with arugula and goat cheese, the unforgettable and delicious new ravioli dish packed with boysenberry flavors, freshly-baked boysenberry fry bread and lip-smacking corn on the cob with boysenberry butter and mayo, each dish will leave guests wanting for more. Other must try items include crispy deep fried alligator bites paired with farm-made zesty boysenberry aioli, finger-lickin boysenberry BBQ wings, savory boysenberry meatballs, sweet boysenberry cream soda, creamy chocolate covered boysenberry cheesecake on a stick and many more delicious treats. Additional fee for tastings. Guests who want to take home the exquisite Boysenberry BBQ sauce, Boysenberry Butter, Boysenberry Dressing and Boysenberry Chipotle Sauce can do so by stopping by the Berry Market located in the California MarketPlace and General Store located in Ghost Town. Select items are available on the online Berry Market store.
Guests can purchase boysenberry inspired products throughout the winding streets of the Old West at the Crafts Fair. This year’s boysenberry products include boysenberry soap, lip balm and the devilishly good rock candy. Festivalgoers can also watch special demonstrations including a chainsaw wood sculpting, glass blowing and blacksmithing. From day to night, Ghost Town has never looked so lively.
This year, in honor of the famous berry, Ghost Town’s Town Hall will feature a fascinating film which shares the story of how Walter and Cordelia Knott settled here in Buena Park and helped the world discover the amazing boysenberry. Guests can pull up a seat and catch a 10-minute showing of the historic film offered exclusively during the festival.
The Knott’s Boysenberry Festival also features an extensive line up of live entertainment. Join Snoopy, Charlie and the entire Peanuts gang as they present an all new interactive, musical revue called Snoopy’s Boysenberry Jamboree! at the Calico Mine Stage. This new show will have families singing, dancing, and playing along with the beloved Peanuts characters and talented performers during the whimsical, high energy celebration of springtime. Country music and the aroma of deliciously good food will fill the air as the Ghost Town Miners take the stage in a fun, musical performance at the Firemen’s BBQ stage. Just across the Fireman’s stage, the Legendary Bird Cage Theatre pays tribute to Knott’s past; for the first time in over 20 years, the theatre will be the home of musical comedy melodrama, with a special presentation of the Old Time Melodrama. America’s longest running Melodrama returns with an original, interactive, comedy with a surprising boysenberry twist! In the evening, a group of krazy talented performers will have guests kicking up their heels with vine dancing, a down home jug band and dueling fiddlers and banjos! At the Wagon Camp stage, get krazy when Krazy Kirk and the Hillbillies mount their toe tappin’, knee-slappin’, gut-bustin’ country comedy show that will have audiences clamoring for more!
The fun continues with new additions exclusively for the Boysenberry Festival. Brand new this season, The Old MacDonald Petting Zoo pays tribute to one of Knott’s original attractions. Young ones and young at heart are invited to cozy up to the cutest critters on the farm including horses, sheep, goats and other furry friends.
Springtime fun has also taken root in Camp Snoopy and Fiesta Village. During the limited-time event, the whole family can meet the Easter Beagle at his Camp Snoopy home, blooming with colorful springtime décor. The meet and greet location is the perfect place for shareable moments with the boisterous beagle and his friends – Charlie Brown, Lucy, Sally, and Linus. Camp Snoopy Theatre will showcase the PEANUTS pals singing, dancing, and sharing stories for all to enjoy. Everyone in the family can join in the Camp Snoopy activities. The theater will be filled with the sweet sound of little ones as they singing-along to the cheerful tunes! Guests don’t have to be experts at dancing to enjoy a nighttime Fiesta with DJ Cruz in Fiesta Village. The night comes alive with music and dance as everyone will be sure to take to the floor and dance to the rhythmic beat of popular music.
The Boysenberry Festival is included with admission to Knott’s Berry Farm, additional cost for food tasting experiences within the event, which also offers a full day of thrilling coasters and family fun rides. Knott’s will have extended hours, 10am to 10pm, from April 1 – April 23, allowing guests extra time to take advantage of all of the limited-time offerings.
Below are the details for those who qualify for the free screenings:
Prey: Navigate a hay maze full of dead ends with only a faulty lantern as your guide. You are not alone. Mutant beasts are lurking around every corner.
PARANORMAL, INC. – The Haunting of Hayden Hill: Last year’s groundbreaking Paranormal Inc. maze will return to Knott’s Scary Farm this year. Featuring high flying aerial stunts and scares, guests investigate a haunted hospital where the patients were tortured for decades by deranged doctors and nurses. Demonic spirits of the murdered victims have been detected throughout the mysterious halls, while evil medical staff prowl for new patients to torture.
The Dead of Winter: Wendigo’s Revenge – Deep in the frozen tundra, the realm of a treacherous snow queen has been usurped by her evil minion, the horrific wendigo. She may be dead, but her evil spell hasn’t been lifted: The dead cannibals have risen from their snowy graves as hungry creatures feast on the surrounding villages. During the chaos, the queen’s prized possession, the horrific wendigo, has seized control of her throne, ready to prey upon any unsuspecting visitors who enter the borders of its icy domain.
Trick-or-Treat: Take a brave step forward and ring the witch’s doorbell…trick or treat, which will it be? After surviving her grisly welcome, wander into the Green Witch’s never before seen potion room and bewitched attic. But don’t leave too soon; you’re the special guest at the Green Witch’s deadly dinner party where she and her menacing Tricksters await your arrival.
The Tooth Fairy: This twisted tooth fairy steals more than just baby teeth as he drags his victims out their bedroom window and into a world of deranged dentistry. Unbelievable special effects include a blackout room through which guests must feel their way out, a disorienting x-ray strobe light room, and a final encounter with the massive tooth fairy, himself. Say aahhh.
Voodoo – Order of the Serpent: The haunting legend of Papa Legba continues as guests follow him on his foreboding journey to conjure the serpent demon goddess in the outskirts of New Orleans. Trudge cautiously through the cursed swamps of the Deep South, where creatures search the murky bogs for their next bloody sacrifice and demons curse the innocent with Voodoo hexes.
The Gunslinger’s Grave: A Blood Moon Rises: Deadly howls and a full blood moon mark your impending doom as werewolves overrun the crime stricken old west town. Walk in the bloody footsteps of a betrayed and left for dead gunslinger on his path of retribution against the Skinwalkers.
Our first guide was Lara Hannerman, (Creative Director), she guided us through Ghost Town main street to tell us about “Ghost Town Alive.” First stop was Wagon Camp Theater, an all new stage is being built with updated safety for the performers and a new show is coming, no details on that… don’t want to spoil everything 😉 All those classic peek-ins will have real life characters, some of them you will even be able to go inside! The Shootin Gallery will be redone and themed, I have a feeling it’s going to look like the old one but a little smaller! Miss Doolittles will turn into a Textiles store, Miss Goldies you will be able to go inside and see who rules the town this summer! The Toy Barn will have real life Horses inside, and at the post office you will be able to send out real mail! Ghost Town really is going to be alive this Summer! Making our way to School House Road, The Old Haunt Museum will turn into The City Hall where you can meet the mayor and his wife! The pan for gold will go back to its original location, Turquoise Jewelry will turn into a Bank, they will be relocated to another sight in the park!
Dinner Restaurant. I love this guy, he’s done some amazing stuff at Knott’s with the food, he came along with park General Manager Ralfi from Canada’s Wonderland! I remember what the food was like before they came and put it this way I went to Del Taco all the time after my knott’s updates.
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