By Charly SHELTON

Knott’s Boysenberry Festival has long been the park’s most defining event – a food festival built around the berry that put Knott’s on the map. And now it’s back for another year of putting boysenberry into everything you can think of. In recent years, the festival has leaned hard into experimentation, sometimes with mixed results. This year, though, there’s a noticeable shift: a return to basics. And it works.

That doesn’t mean the menu is boring. There’s still some outlandish dishes that push the boundaries of what to expect from a theme park food festival. But overall, the dishes this year feel more grounded, more coherent with what works for the flavor of the berry rather than just finding a reason to drizzle boysenberry sauce on something that doesn’t need it. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, Knott’s is polishing the rims to make them shine.

A few standout examples set the tone perfectly. The boysenberry barbecue meatballs are simple in concept but executed well – and rather than making them a footnote on some other dish they’re paired with mashed potatoes as their own entry for multiple locations at the festival. The kettle chip nachos with boysenberry brisket and boysenberry queso follow the same idea, layering familiar flavors with just enough sweetness from the berry to make them feel specific to the festival without becoming a gimmick.

That balance has been the missing piece in some previous years. There’s nothing wrong with pushing boundaries but when a dish feels experimental for the sake of going viral on Instagram, it has to really land. In past festivals, that hasn’t always been the case. This year, the approach feels more disciplined. The creativity is still there – it’s just being applied to dishes that already make sense.

For example, there’s a dish called The Boysenberry Brick, and if there’s one thing to get for the sake of showing it off on the Internet, it’s the one that is called a brick. It’s a loaf of brioche, deep fried, filled with boysenberry jam and topped with boysenberry soft serve. Go ahead and reread that. It’s a loaf of fried bread. Called The Brick. How could I not get that and brag about it?

But the point is that brick works. It’s basically a giant French toast with boysenberry swapped in lieu of syrup. It’s a dish that’s ready to have berry flavor added without distracting from the rest of the ingredients. Sure – it’s big enough for the entire French Foreign Legion to share, but this is America and that means it’s a serving for one. It’s unique, it’s eye-catching, both online and walking through the park, and most importantly – it is delicious. 

Beyond the food, the festival remains what it’s always been: a celebration of Knott’s history and the berry that started it all. The decorations, the merchandise the overall atmosphere all tie back to that central theme without feeling overdone. But make no mistake – the food is the draw.

This year’s Boysenberry Festival is on now through April 12.