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OXNARD - The build-your-own shortcake tent is a landmark at the California Strawberry Festival each year, and on opening day Saturday it was the center of the action.
As the festival gates opened and the afternoon wore on, thousands lined up, happily waiting for their chance to fill an empty bowl as high as possible with pound cake, ripe strawberries, whipped cream - and more strawberries.
"This was so good!" Simi Valley resident Cheryl Migdol said over an empty bowl of shortcake. Her children, Irish, 6, and Jaqueline, 8, offer up whipped-cream- and strawberry-stained smiles. "They liked it. They want to come here every day."
This year's California Strawberry Festival, which continues today, includes more than 300 arts and crafts vendors from 11 states, and 40 food booths, about half of which are run by such local service groups as the Rotary Club and the Boys & Girls Club of Camarillo.
Long lines filled with those waiting eagerly for treats - strawberry-laden pizza, nachos, funnel cake, kebabs, crepes, smoothies and even flavored beer.
An estimated 28,000 people attended on Saturday, up from 23,000 the year before, organizers...