Knott's Boysenberry Festival 2022

Knott’s Berry Farm, Buena Park, CA

Cheers, everyone! Spring is in full swing, and with it being April, we thought we’d take a trip to our favorite Berry Farm and check out the return of their fan-favorite Boysenberry Festival after a two year absence. This springtime event is a wonderful celebration of the berry that made Knott’s famous, and the combination of gourmet food and beverages, fun activities, and rollicking shows make this an attraction that’s not to be missed.

This year’s Boysenberry Festival is the grandest yet, running six weeks and seven weekends through Sunday, April 24th. The event’s popularity has never been greater, so lets check out what the Boysenberry Festival is like this year!

Ambiance

The environment at Knott’s is always so beautifully lovely and colorful and invigorating during this time of year. The purple hue of the boysenberry dominates a lot of the decorations, furnishings, and drapery, but it makes the park look great. The floral and plant decorations also really reinforce the arrival of spring, adding extra pizzazz in the air.

The entrance is full of lavender and purple blooms, as Knott’s has crafted another beautiful front gate photo op for the Boysenberry Festival.

Knott’s has information and navigation displays scattered throughout the park in various locations to help people get around. Physical maps still haven’t returned, and whether that’s because of continued COVID precautions (unlikely, given that the park has dropped all others) or cost-cutting in favor of having people navigate the Knott’s app, it means that those not using their phones to get around will need to find one of these stands.

Here’s a map with the lay of the land and where to get one’s grub on!

There are plenty of entertainment options at the Boysenberry Festival!

That inconvenience aside, it can’t be denied just how pretty the park looks all around!

And of course, the theming an decorations around the park look wonderful!

Berry Lane

Recently, Knott’s Berry Farm has experimented with opening up the backstage area by Ghostrider for events other than Knott’s Scary Farm. This year, for the first time, the Boynsenberry Festival features “Berry Lane,” an additional area with games, dining areas, photo ops, meet-and-greets, and one of the Tasting Card stands. Guests can take a photo with Whittles by a charming mine facade or meet stilt walking chefs who welcome guests with great cheer and enthusiasm. It’s a nice little addition to the park that foreshadows potential expansion coming in the not-too-distant future.

Also, if you want to get a Boysenberry Pie plush, then Berry Lane is the place. There is a “winner every time” carnival game where guests can win the plush if they opt for the “mega” size. The plush is made for the new Bear-y Tales ride, but it’s pretty freaking cute.

This plush is really freaking adorable, and we wouldn’t be surprised if every child (and some adults) visiting the Boysenberry Festival wanted one.

Crafts Fair

The Boysenberry Festival has also featured a traditional Crafts Fair where local small business vendor can sell their wares inside the park. Many of these items are mementos of the handcrafted variety, from apparel to soaps to artwork and more. It’s great to see this community support and involvement at Knott’s, allowing independent artists and creators to have a place to feature their products at the park. There are plenty of adorable boysenberry-themed items at the Crafts Fair, from crocheted hats and knick-knacks to plushes and other fun souvenirs. Official Knott’s Boysenberry Festival merchandise is available too, including a wide variety of culinary and gourmet items.

It is a great way to support local businesses and creative artists!

Old MacDonald’s Farm

Farm animals are on display at Old MacDonald’s Farm, i.e. the Livery Stable. This attraction is open throughout the year but just has a slight rebrand for the Boysenberry Festival.

Cordelia’s Pie Kitchen

Near the Wilderness Dance Hall, guests can participate in cookie decorating at Cordelia’s Pie Kitchen. The kit is an uncharge, but guests can decorate inside the building, providing a bit of boysenberry activity fun.

Guests can purchase these sugar cookie decorating kits.

Just off frame is a main table where guest can set out their sweets and frost and decorate them.

Food

Of course, the food is a big focus at the Boysenberry Festival. Once again, guests can sample a variety of specially curated and seasonally-specific food items, from full size dishes at quick serves throughout the park to “sampler size” (but still pretty substantial—more than DCA’s Food and Wine Festival at least) options that are part of the Boysenberry Festival Tasting Card. The card offers guests (6) food and beverage options (including alcohol) at one of nine stands located throughout Ghost Town (and adjacent areas officially incorporated into Ghost Town).

A tasting card costs $50 ($45 for Knott’s season pass holders) and can be purchased at Front Gate Booth, Wagon Wheel Pizza, Sutter's Locations, Wilderness Broiler, Ghost Town Bakery, Spurs Chophouse, Chow House Booth, Wilderness Dance Hall, Boysenberry Lane Booth, Silver Bullet Booth, California Store, General Store, Gold Trails Hotel, or Little Spurs.

This year’s Boysenberry Festival Tasting Card.

Check out our Tasting Event recap for our thoughts on the food. After eating our way through two tasting cards worth of food during out visit, our top three favorite savory foods were the:

Boysenberry Filled Donut Open Faced Breaded Chicken Sandwich Topped with Bacon Jam and Arugula
All-Beef Meatballs in a Boysenberry BBQ Sauce on Mashers
Trio of Sausage with Peppers and Onions on Boysenberry Polenta

The Boysenberry Cowboy Chili was pretty tasty too.

In the beverage department, the Boysenberry Slushy Mudslide was excellent (though for those who don’t like very sweet items, maybe too potent). The Boysenberry & Pomegranate Smoothie was also fantastic, though I would say that the Boysenberry (only) Smoothie from previous years was a little better.

Overall, though, the food at Knott’s Boysenberry Festival is the best we’ve seen yet, with very few misses. Kudos to Knott’s culinary department for continuing to improve and up their food festival game to compete with an increasing number of other similar events, just in Southern California! They’ve done a great job!

Craft Beer Tasting

Those who are looking for a sampling of different beers and wines can also take part in the Craft Beer Tasting at the Wilderness Dance Hall. A sampling card for that is available, giving guests tasting portions of a variety of boysenberry alcoholic beverages from local craft breweries and beverage makers.

Local breweries have crafted an assortment of boozes for the Boysenberry Festival!

The stations are all inside, but guests can enjoy their beverages inside the Wilderness Dance Hall or outside.

Tied Up in Knott’s Art Show

Swinging over the Factory Store, aka the Bear-y Tales: Return to the Fair souvenir shop, guests can find this year’s Boysenberry Festival art show, Tied Up in Knott’s. Once again, there is a wonderful selection of Knott’s-based and inspired artwork produced by a selection of exceptionally talented artists, all paying tribute to Knott’s memories and history. Although the originals have sold out, guests can purchase prints of most of the artwork on display. There are a lot of familiar names among the creations, which range from professional artists to creative people who also work at Knott’s. It’s great seeing such immensely talented people showcase their love for Knott’s and create such lovely pieces of art to have on exhibit!

This illustrative retro park map from our friend, Sam Carter, is practically magical.

We, of course, have to highlight this awesome natural history print of the Catawampus.

Glo Haro painted the cutest boysenberry you’ve ever seen! Photos don’t do this justice. It’s somehow even cuter in person.

Entertainment

Besides the food and the activities, the other half of what makes Knott’s Boysenberry Festival so rich are the shows. Knott’s has an incredible variety of entertainment options throughout the park, and they provide a wide variety of ways guests can enjoy themselves while taking a break from the eating and the rides. We’ve got a recap of all of the “shows” at the Boysenberry Festival this year, with the exception of the Native American Dancers at the Indian Trails Stage and Music Goes Round and Around at the Camp Snoopy Theater. But you can check out our Peanuts Celebration review for the latter show!

Riverboat Revenge

The highlight of this year’s entertainment line-up was the production of Riverboat Revenge, at the Bird Cage Theatre. Creating it again four decades after it first debuted, Riverboat Revenge brings hilarious and riveting melodrama to the waters of the Mississippi this season. Playing weekends, the show tells the story of a bumbling but kind-hearted captain looking to make his fortune by winning a riverboat race, but standing in his way is a dastardly villain and owner of a rival watercraft plus his femme fatale co-conspirator. Employing the efforts of a valiant first mate who also finds love with the captains beautiful and innocent daughter, the five players engage in a rip-roaring adventure on the high… rivers…

Captain Harmon and Dan Darby envision their future if they win the big riverboat race.

Guests attending the show may see a couple familiar faces from Ghost Town Alive!, and the entire cast does an outstanding job mixing humor, gags, and exaggerated drama in this five act story. Dale Jones’ Caldwell Cadwallader is an uproarious villain of the most absurd and dastardly kind, prone to exposition and self-praise and melodramatic antagonist play to the highest degree. Richard Wallace’s Dan Darby is charming, engaging, and exceptionally likable… the hero everyone strives to root for. Candice Berge’s Sirena Sidney is a strong, assertive, wonderfully sassy character with a good heart who is just caught up on the wrong side of conspiratorial machinations. Kenny Landmon’s Captain Harmony is lovable, silly, and slapstick—almost a Gilligan character. And Amber Luallen plays the damsel Heather Harmony to full, Snow White-esque aplomb.

However, the heroes will gain nothing if the conniving Caldwell Cadwallader can help it!

The show is aided by the raucous audience participation and regular breaking of the fourth wall, sprinkling a bit of improvisational moments in its action-packed forty minute run time. Riverboat Revenge is a can’t-miss show at the Boysenberry Festival, and we’re glad that Knott’s brought back this classic of a show at this classic park venue!

History of the Boysenberry

While not a show directly, the History of the Boysenberry documentary is once again playing in a looped cycle at the Calico Town Hall. Guests can sit and rest their feet while learning about how Walter Knott grew his roadside stand into a theme park from the video at the front of the space.

The boysenberry documentary is once again playing inside Town Hall.

It all started with a mouse—I mean a berry.

Bluegrass Duo

There are other, more regular park entertainment that are also part of the Boysenberry Festival line-up. Bluegrass Duo, for example, is a staple at the Fireman’s BBQ Stage next to the Bird Cage Theatre. Their pleasant, relaxing twangs provide nice entertainment to diners enjoying their grilled chicken and ribs and cole slaw and bread.

Calico Park Music

In Calico Park, a rotating series of bands offers musical entertainment every hour to hour and a half during the daytime. Check the entertainment schedule at Knott’s for more details. Genres range from blues and zydeco to Latin-infused pop covers and alternative.

One of a variety of bands that are playing at the Calico Park Stage this season.

The Mighty Tornados

This country band took the stage at the Wagon Camp during the Peanuts Celebration when Krazy Kirk and the Hillbillies weren’t playing, and they’re back for the Boysenberry Festival. With their fun and exuberant country covers and whimsical banter and audience engagement, they provide an enjoyable show during their evening showtimes.

Boysenberry Festival Fun & Games and Pie-Eating Contest

During the day, the Calico Mine Stage plays host to a variety of games and activities every hour on the hour, similar to what took place at Calico Park during the Peanuts Festival. The highlight of this is the 4:30pm pie-eating contest, where lucky, chosen guests can participate in a delicious chow down to win another pie! This has all the atmosphere of an exciting country fair competition and quite the visual spectacle, as guests inevitably dive right in to consume the most pastry in the short allotted time!

Here’s the schedule of the Calico Park Stage games.

If you catch one, though, don’t miss the Pie-Eating Contest!

K-NOT Radio

A bastion of witty skits and fast banter, K-NOT Radio has been a favorite in the short number of years that it’s been at Knott’s, expanding to be a part of almost all of the park’s seasons events. It’s back again at The Boardwalk, in front of the Sky Cabin. Listen close so that you don’t miss anything. The talented, quick-speaking DJ’s are always on top of their spiels and never miss a beat. And the resulting vignettes are honestly pretty hilarious! We love seeing K-NOT Radio continue being a part of Knott’s line-up!

Boysenberry Blues

The Boardwalk BBQ Stage is home to a jazz blues duo for the Boysenberry Festival, giving diners and onlookers nice, swinging tunes to enjoy. During our visit, we even saw a pair of impromptu swing dancers twirl to the music, similar to what used to happen at Disneyland on Saturday nights. With songs both fast and slow paced, Boysenberry Blues offers musical delights to all guests.

Totally Tubular 80s Dance Party

Inside the Cloud Nine Ballroom, the 1980s reign. From 6:30 - 9:30 on Fridays through Sundays, guests of all ages can enjoy dancing to classic rock hits from Journey to Queen and more. Interestingly, we saw plenty of young children and adolescents gleefully grooving to the music of their parents, proving that good music is timeless.

Enjoy a far-out party all night long in the Cloud Nine Ballroom with hits from the 80s.

Mariachi Angelitas

At the Fiesta Village Stage, the entertainment takes on the melodies of regional Mexico with the Mariachi Angelitas. Much like the Mariachi Divas are the official mariachi band of the Disneyland Resort, the very slightly differently named Mariachi Angelitas are the official mariachi band of Knott’s Berry Farm. Their high energy, crowd-rousing performances highlight classic ballads while mixing in a few modern songs, and they are an excellent band of musicians, period!

Snoopy’s Boysenberry JAMboree

Main eventing the Calico Mine Stage on weekend evenings, Snoopy’s Boysenberry JAMboree returns for another Boysenberry Festival run. The show is unchanged from past years, but it’s always fun to follow along the adventures of the Peanuts gang as they prepare for their big springtime pageant, featuring a variety of humorously named and agrarian related pageant participants. Snoopy, of course, can’t help but stick his nose into boysenberry business, much to Lucy’s chagrin, but after bout with some April showers that threaten to derail the whole production, everything comes through at the end.

Snoopy is the star of the show at his big Boysenberry JAMboree!

Snoopy’s Boysenberry JAMboree is an extravagant production featuring delightful familiar characters and terrific dancers and singers. The breadth of the production is spectacular, and it has the wholesome and warmhearted feel that all of Knott’s Peanuts shows have. If Riverboat Revenge is a daytime must-see, guests should also stick around in the evening for this show!

But the other performers are pretty marvelous too.

The Crowds

Overall, the Boysenberry Festival was another hit and offered a wonderful time celebrating all things Knott’s. But we’d be remiss to point out that the event, and Knott’s own popularity in general, may be becoming so great that it’s starting to have some side effects that detract from the guest experience. On our Saturday visit, the park was absolutely packed, with long lines at numerous attractions throughout the park that spilled out onto the main pathways and at the food stands for the Tasting Card and for regular ala carte dining. Rides like Coast Rider and HangTime were 2 hrs long, and Ghostrider looked to be 3 hrs long, with the queue completely full.

The improvements that Knott’s has made to the park and the diversity of its offerings have been wonderful, and the public has noticed. Add to this the fact that Disneyland’s annual pass system system was revamped, limited, and still requires use of a reservation system, and there’s been a lot of migration of the AP population to Knott’s instead. This is fantastic for Knott’s profile, but it does also mean that a lot of patience is needed when visiting the park. Though it definitely has more of an off season than Disneyland, during peak days—including weekends and, right now, spring break weekdays—there are a LOT of patrons enjoying what Knott’s has to offer. And anyone who still might be uncomfortable with packed conditions because of COVID concerns should understand that they may run into such an environment at the Boysenberry Festival.

That’s not a typo. Coast Rider—one of the park’s middle tier roller coasters, sported a two hour weight a couple Saturdays ago!

That said, the negatives were not enough to cloud our visit (though admittedly, we didn’t go for any rides). Just bring some patience and the right expectations and take advantage of event amenities that aren't as queueing-intensive. Knott’s Boysenberry Festival is still a delight, and the quality of the food and merchandise and productions has never been better. If the park needs to figure out how to adapt with its expanded success, well, that’s a great problem to have!