Old Jasper Day and Strawberry Festival return to Jasper Riverwalk Plaza

Jasper’s Riverwalk Plaza will again become the center of the city’s spring calendar when Old Jasper Day and the Strawberry Festival return Sunday, May 17, bringing food, music and family activity back to Dave Buehler Plaza from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The Jasper Lions Club will sell sandwiches, fresh strawberries and other treats, while local musician Jed Guillame is scheduled to play from noon to 3 p.m. The day is built around the kind of downtown gathering that has long defined Old Jasper, with free carriage rides, face painting, tours of the historic Alexander Schoolhouse, barn and garden stops, strawberry plantings while supplies last and storytime readings of I Love Strawberries at several points during the afternoon.

The Jasper Schnitzeljagd scavenger hunt will add a competitive charity element to the event. Teams must have a car and a phone, and registration fees will go to charity. That mix of games, fundraising and hands-on activities makes the festival more than a food stop, and it keeps families moving through the Riverwalk plaza area instead of treating the day as a quick visit.

City records show the Jasper Chamber of Commerce and the Jasper Lions Club worked together to secure the plaza space for the festival, including the shelter houses and gazebo. The event also fits into a busy stretch of downtown programming, with other May events clustered around the same calendar window, a sign that Jasper’s core is being used as an active gathering place rather than just a pass-through.

That is part of why the strawberry festival matters locally. It draws people into the refurbished Old Jasper area where Third Avenue crosses the Patoka River, near the Jasper City Mill and the broader River Centre redevelopment, which has added residential apartments, mixed-use retail, rooftop event space and hotel rooms near the old train depot. The festival keeps that investment visible by putting residents, visitors, volunteers and downtown businesses in the same place on the same day.

The annual tradition also underscores the staying power of community groups that keep it alive. The Jasper Lions Club says it is celebrating 75 years serving Jasper and Dubois County, and the city’s long record of listings shows Old Jasper Day has repeatedly returned to the same downtown and riverwalk setting for years. For Jasper, the strawberry festival remains a simple test of civic identity: whether the city center can still pull families, volunteers and local vendors together around a familiar spring ritual.