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VIDEO: Post-pandemic version of the Cranberry Festival draws crowds to Fort Langley

It was the 27th edition of the annual tribute to the native B.C. fruit

Long-time Fort Langley resident Gordon Smith was enjoying an outdoor breakfast of pancakes and sausage on Saturday morning, Oct. 8 at a table under a sun shade as the 27th Cranberry Festival got underway.

Smith, 85, was glad to see the festival back without the hindrance of pandemic-required restrictions.

“I’ve been going ever since it started, however long that is ” Smith told the Langley Advance Times.

“I come every year.”

John Moralek was frying sausages at the Fort Langley Lions Club breakfast on Saturday, Oct. 8, as the annual Fort Langley Cranberry Festival got underway. (Dan Ferguson/Langley Advance Times)
John Moralek was frying sausages at the Fort Langley Lions Club breakfast on Saturday, Oct. 8, as the annual Fort Langley Cranberry Festival got underway. (Dan Ferguson/Langley Advance Times)

There was a lineup for the breakfast, put on by the Fort Langley Lions Club in the park just off Glover Road and Mary Avenue, which was closed to accommodate dozens of vendors and food trucks.

For the breakfast, there were special sausages made with cranberries.

In 2020, the festival was cancelled because of the pandemic, but organizers delivered berries to people who registered.

A scaled-down in-person version was held in 2021.

READ ALSO: VIDEO: Scaled-down Fort Langley Cranberry Festival rated a success by organizers

For 2022, the festival was back to its pre-pandemic format.

Elvis was just one of several performers re-created by performer Jonathan Martin Hicks, who also sang as Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly at the annual Fort Langley Cranberry Festival on Saturday, Oct. 8. (Special to Langley Advance Times)
Elvis was just one of several performers re-created by performer Jonathan Martin Hicks, who also sang as Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly at the annual Fort Langley Cranberry Festival on Saturday, Oct. 8. (Special to Langley Advance Times)

Live bands were playing at the heritage Fort Langley Community Hall where Margaret Rogers and other volunteers overseeing the sale of thousands of pounds of Cranberries from Ocean Spray, packing them into two-and-a-half pound bags for sale at $5 each, “until we run out.”

Money from the berry sale helps fund the festival.

This year, the event included a scarecrow contest at the Fort Langley Historic site and canoe races on the river.

The annual celebration began in 1995, started by a local group of farmers.

Cranberries are one of the only native fruits commercially grown in B.C.

Filled with antioxidants, Vitamin C, and fibre, they were used by First Nations along the Fraser River for food, dye and medicine, and they were an important trading item with the Hudson’s Bay Company.

An estimated 12 per cent of the North American cranberry crop comes from B.C.

READ ALSO: Decades old tradition to celebrate everything cranberry returns this Thanksgiving weekend

More images from the Saturday festival can be viewed online at the Langley Advance Tines Facebook page.


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Dan Ferguson

About the Author: Dan Ferguson

Best recognized for my resemblance to St. Nick, I’m the guy you’ll often see out at community events and happenings around town.
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