VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The 2024 Pungo Strawberry Festival has been canceled, marking the fifth year in a row that the Virginia Beach event hasn't taken place.
In a Facebook post on Monday, the Pungo Strawberry Festival Board of Directors said they are "on hiatus until we can assemble a new team and a suitable venue avails itself."
"We have been a casualty of our own success, and we are proud to have organized 36 years of a beloved, legacy festival in downtown Pungo with the support of the community and the city."
Before the pandemic began in 2020, the Strawberry Festival had been held in Pungo every year since 1984 on Memorial Day Weekend.
The festival is a celebration of the unofficial start of summer and the area's agricultural heritage of the sweet berry fruit.
In 2020 and 2021, festival organizers called it off due to safety and health concerns. In 2022, the festival was called off due to "unforeseen circumstances."
In 2023 festival organizers said that they weren't able to get the land-use agreements that they needed in time.
Burroughs Hindle added that from a "big picture" perspective, she wouldn't be opposed to expanding the festival to reimagine what it looks like, but that would "take some time."