Lodi Grape Festival’s roots stretch deep into history
When visitors chow down on funnel cake and giant corn dogs, ride the swings until they feel sick and wander through the exhibits and vendors at the Lodi Grape Festival grounds this month, they’ll be part of a 111-yearold tradition.
The Tokay Carnival
The first Lodi Grape Festival was held in 1934, but it harkens back to an earlier celebration: the 1907 Tokay Carnival. The harvest celebration was a marketing effort by Lodi grape growers and other farmers, to celebrate the then-brand-new city’s role as a top producer of Flame Tokay grapes.
Watermelon was an early major crop in the Lodi area, but by 1907, farmers were replacing sprawling watermelon vines with more stately table grapes, including the popular Flame Tokays.
According to papers belonging to the late Maurice Hill, a Lodi resident in 1907, fellow Lodian Charles Ray proposed the carnival as a way “to advertise to the world the beauty and value of the Tokay grape.”
Ray put together a team of 27 local organizers to plan and promote the fair, and the Lodi Sentinel joined in spreading the word. Lodi residents joined in the effort en masse, serving on more than 80 subcommittees and picking up posters at Frank Chrisman’s drug store to post when they visited other cities.
Lodi does have one lasting memory of the festival — the Mission Arch on Pine Street was one of two constructed for the festivities. The other, a temporary wooden arch, was torn down after the carnival ended.
The Tokay Carnival was a huge success, with a Wild West show, concerts, vaudeville performances, a parade, bronco busting and more.
Bertha DeAlmado served as the carnival’s Queen Zinfandel, and her court included 10 other young women from the local area. California Gov. James N. Gillett attended and gave a short speech.
But the Tokay Carnival carried a large price tag, and so it faded into memory — for a time.
The first Lodi Grape Festival
In 1934, Lodi Police Chief Clarence Jackson and his Mustachio Club, a group of city leaders that included Lodi Mayor George M. Steele, decided to revive the festival. Instead of a one-year, all-out extravaganza, this group planned for the Grape Festival to last.
The idea first began to take root at an enchilada feed hosted by Jackson to thank police and volunteers for their work suppressing labor unrest during the 1933 grape harvest.
The festival was a muchneeded respite from the dreary days of the Great Depression, which in 1934 was only just starting to ease. Prohibition was repealed in December 1933, and grape growers — especially those growing wine grapes — could see things looking up. Happy days weren’t quite here again, but they were within reach and people wanted to celebrate.
In 1934, the city of Lodi boasted a population of only 6,000, but they still knew how to throw a party.
Marie Graffigna reigned over that first festival, crowned by Gov. Frank Merriam in front of a crowd of 8,000. While the bulk of the festivities were held near the Arch, other activities were found all over the small city.
The festival featured grape contests and exhibits, a giant Ferris wheel and merry-goround, a swimming and diving event at the Lodi Baths, Japanese wrestling, dancing at Eagles Hall, and boat races and fireworks at Lodi Lake.
Changing traditions
The first Grape Festivals were held under the Lodi Arch, but by 1948, the Grape Festival had outgrown these arrangements. Organizers purchased a plot of land on Lockeford Street, now the Lodi Grape Festival grounds, and got to work constructing the Grape Pavilion. In 1950, the festival settled into its new home for the first time.
The location isn’t the only thing that’s changed over the years. The early festivals featured the Horribles Parade, starring city leaders in frightening costumes intended to “amuse and alarm.” By 1937, that was replaced by the Kiddie Parade, which was held until about 2010.
From 1942 to 1945, as World War II raged, the Grape Festival was mostly canceled, but the Kiddie Parade and a couple of other child-centered events carried on.
The queen tradition is another that has slowly faded away. From the time Graffigna donned her crown in 1934 until Angela Parises removed hers in 1980, the queens and princesses represented the fair, spending their festival days greeting guests and viewing the exhibits.
But as old traditions have withered, new ones have grown to take their places.
Each year, a handful of community groups from local 4-H chapters to Omega Nu gather to create stunning, artistic murals made entirely with grapes. Other groups’ murals include other produce found throughout the county.
The mural tradition began in the 1950s, after a director visiting a Southern California citrus festival saw it in action there.
And the Grape Festival still has some star power. Stars like Lawrence Welk, Johnny Weissmuller, Joe E. Brown and the Budweiser Clydesdales have made appearances in Lodi in the past.
This year, headliners are Ty Herndon, Blood, Sweat & Tears, and the Wailers, along with Petty Theft — paying tribute to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.