Bandon Cranberry Festival 2024 Hits South Oregon Coast in Sept with Live Music, Eating Contests

Published 8/28/24 at 5:05 a.m.
By Andre' GW Hagestedt, Oregon Coast Beach Connection

(Bandon, Oregon) – When does the Bandon Cranberry Festival 2024 happen?

The little south Oregon coast town gets big on the colorful morsel on September 14 and 15 – although a couple of events just before that stretch it out to September 12.

The annual monster-of-a-festival honors the local cranberry industry, one that has not just put the state on the map but especially the southern Oregon coast. There are varied operations from Port Orford up to Bandon, including little towns Sixes and Langlois.

It's quite literally a very colorful place, and the festival is one of the largest on the coast.

The festival got started in 1947 – by newspaper accounts – first celebrated in November of that year. A quick history look:

In '47, Bandon's city recorder Wesley Chappel tells the local paper some 174 acres had been planted with cranberry bogs by that time, and that this part of the south Oregon coast had the “potential of 14,200 acres.” There's a heckuva lot more than that now.

Chappel said much of the reason for celebrating that first cranberry fest was the recovery of the town from '35 fire, which leveled nearly all of it. But he also speculates the idea for it may have come from a time when cranberries in this area were still a hobby. It was not a business for many years.

Bandon. Photo Manuela Durson - see Manuela Durson Fine Arts for more

“Neighbors helped hand-pick the ripe, red berries,” he recalled to the paper. “The men talked of coming elections, the housewives and mothers traded recipes and ideas on child raising – and romance blossomed in the bogs. It was a festive occasion.”

Note: times of events have not bee listed yet. Call the Bandon Chamber for more information closer to the event: 541-347-9616.

The celebration technically happens September 14 and 15, but a couple of other events lengthen the party out to September 12. They are considered pre-event happenings. That day, a Thursday, the Cranberry Court takes place, where the queen of the 2024 Cranberry Festival is crowned at Sprague Theater, Bandon City Park.

The following day, September 13, comes the Cranberry Kitchen Contest at the VFW Hall Post 3440. Food dishes made from the local treat are juried. Also happening then is the Old Town Marketplace Farmers Market at the Warehouse, Port of Bandon Waterfront.

On Saturday, September 14, the Bandon Cranberry Festival gets started in earnest with the VFW Auxiliary Craft Bazaar & Bake Sale at the VFW Hall Post.

The Cranberry Festival Parade winds through town on Highway 101 and through Old Town.

There's also the Cranberry Car Show, with Best of Decade Trophies awarded for cars from the 20th century through models that are current. Keeping with the motoring theme, the festival also hosts the Cranberry Motorcycle Show.

At the Oddfellows Hall there's the “Quilts by the Sea” Quilt Show

Meanwhile, get your food on with the Cranberry Festival Vendor Market.

There's live music on two stages, a Kid's Korner, a pickleball tournament and the famed Cranberry Eating Contest where you can watch people enlarge their faces.

At night, the festivities peak with the Cranberry Evening Dance at the Bandon City Park.

On September 15, go wild with the Cranberry Festival Bike Ride, which starts at the library and then zooms along 12 miles of south Oregon coast countryside and bog territory. The VW Hall hosts an all-you-can-eat breakfast and there's more Cranberry Food Court for the rest of the day's hunger.

More live music hits both stages, a Prancing Pet Parade takes place in Old Town Bandon, there's more cranberry eating contest happening and it all caps off with the Bandon Lions Club Cranberry Run (Run or Walk 1 Mile, 5K, or 10K). https://bandon.com/cranberry-festival-events-2024/ 541-347-9616.

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