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BERKLEY — The Berkley Days festival officially will not be happening in 2025.
The Berkley Days Association has decided to not hold Berkley Days this year and instead the organization will look to save money to hold a bigger event next year.
“We basically came to that decision because we’re going to have to rethink the event and we didn’t want to just throw something together just to have something,” Berkley Days Committee Chair Denise Downen said. “We wanted to have that extra time to plan something new from scratch.”
Downen said the decision to not pursue Berkley Days this year was a hard one, but also it was a choice that made sense for the committee.
“Berkley Days is a tradition and we didn’t want to disappoint anyone by not having it, but at the same time, we realize that this is going to be very different from what the community is used to,” she said. “We really wanted to put in that extra time and care to plan something that would be memorable.
For the past two years, the Berkley Days festival has been plagued by safety issues and instances of fights breaking out on the event grounds.
The 2023 event saw a number of juveniles attend wearing masks, carrying duffel bags and bringing BB guns. After fights broke out, the decision was made to cancel the rest of the festival.
Organizers attempted to curb any concerns of safety with increased security measures the following year. While the event ran with limited issues for the first two days in 2024, similar problems with kids sneaking in with masks arose. After fights broke out once again, Berkley Days was cut short for the rest of its third day and then reopened for its fourth and last day with updated rules that included showing identification upon entry, all minors needing to be accompanied by an adult and an earlier closing time.
After two consecutive years of issues, the Berkley City Council moved to ban carnivals last fall, a move that was supported by the Berkley Days Association.
It was expected that the association would return to the city to submit a new plan for what the Berkley Days festival could look like in 2025, but it never happened.
Downen said one idea the committee is considering is an event with a Roaring ’20s theme in celebration of the Berkley Days centennial.
“The first Berkley Days was held Sept. 11, 1926. It was a one-day event. So we’re thinking about kind of taking it back to the beginning,” she said. “We’re still in early planning stages.”
The Berkley Days Association is asking for new ideas of what a reimagined festival could look like. To submit ideas, email berkleydays@yahoo.com.
“We look forward to working with them to plan it,” Berkley Director of Communications Caitlin Flora said of next year’s event. “It’s a fun celebration for the whole community.”
