A festival as fun as a pie in the kisser

THE SOUPY SALES pie-in-the-face routine has nothing on the California Strawberry Festival, where would-be pie-oneers can practice their own version of the classic slapstick maneuver. At the tart toss, stick your head through a cutout in a wooden board. If the tosser successfully hits the target (your face), you win. All you can lose is your dignity.

“As funny as it sounds, people say, ‘I’ve always wanted to have a pie thrown in my face,’ ” festival manager Bonnie Weigel says. Just ask Sales. The comedian and children’s TV show host who elevated the humble pie toss into an art form took from 19,000 to 25,000 pies right in the kisser.

If you prefer cramming at least as much dessert into your face as you smear onto it, the festival’s shortcake-eating contest (strawberry, of course) offers a fleeting but messy opportunity for speed eaters and would-be gluttons. Nancy Rodriguez, one of the hosts of Ventura radio station Q104.7’s Clubhouse morning show, counts herself among the latter. “I’m a little competitive,” Rodriguez says, “but more than anything I thought, ‘All the pie I can eat for a buck? You can’t beat that.’ ”

At this messy battle, competitors -- some of whom have trained for years at backyard barbecues, family dinners and buffet extravaganzas -- have 60 seconds to inhale as much pie as they can without benefit of forks or hands. Nicholas Lopez, 18, has competed twice and in 2003, at the tender age of 14, won first place. With all the humility of a true champion (or a bored teenager), he doesn’t take excessive pride in his accomplishment. “I wouldn’t call it a talent at all,” Lopez says of his ability to down copious amounts of food in record time. “It was just being hungry.” And the recovery was brutal. “I don’t think I ate for a long time afterward,” he says, “maybe three or four hours.”

Rodriguez, who didn’t come close to winning in her first attempt, has a strategy this time.

“The first year I was a little afraid of sinking my face into the pie and getting extremely messy. One of the mistakes I made was focusing too much on the person next to me and seeing how quick they were going. This year I’m going to focus on swallowing the strawberries instead of chewing them one by one,” she says.

Other highlights include a strawberry stomp, in which competitors have one minute to see how much berry juice they can mash out; performances by swing band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and rock drummer Sheila E; a build-your-own strawberry shortcake contest and a cornucopia of strawberry-based foods, including a strawberry pizza.

“The days of the old country fairs are gone,” Weigel says. “I think this really recalls a time when things were simpler.”

--

-- Elina.Shatkin@latimes.com

--

CALIFORNIA STRAWBERRY FESTIVAL

WHERE: Strawberry Meadows of College Park, 3250 S. Rose Ave.,

Oxnard

WHEN: 10 a.m.-6:30 p.m. Sat. and Sun.

PRICE: $12, general; $8, seniors; $5, children ages 5 to 12

INFO: (888) 288-9242

www.strawberry-fest.org/