The Bear-y Tales gang will not be returning for this years Boysenberry Festival

To the delight of Knott's fans everywhere, 2015 saw the re-introduction of the beloved Knott's Bear-y Tales cast of characters into Knott's Berry Farm. As part of the annual Boysenberry Festival, Knott's Berry Farm debuted the Bear-y Tales Pie Kitchen in the old Ghost Town Toy Barn (where several of the classic ride’s figures still performed), a place where kids could join the Bear-y Tales gang to learn about the process of how boysenberries become award-winning pies and bake their very own delightfully sweet boysenberry tarts complete with a crumble topping (appropriately tying to the theme of the original attraction). The interactive-storybook pie kitchen took inspiration from the old Knott's Bear-y Tales: Journey to the Fair storybook and truly brought the pages to life. Knott's also had 2 limited-edition Knott's Bear-y Tales t-shirts on sale as part of this celebration. It must've been popular enough, as Knott's brought back the Bear-y Tales Pie Kitchen for the 2016 Boysenberry Festival and sold a limited edition re-print of the Knott's Bear-y Tales: Journey to the Fair book that inspired it.

So flash forward to 2017 and the Bear-y Tales gang is nowhere to be seen. Of course, a few things have changed since last year. During the 75th anniversary of Ghost Town, The Barn was renovated to house livestock and more recently, the remaining Bear-y Tales animatronics were sold off during last week's Heritage Auction. With that said, the interactive pie-making did return but without the Bear-y Tales gang. It is now Cordelia’s Pie Kitchen (NOT the Bear-y Tales Pie Kitchen) and while its equally as appropriate, it does feel like a missed opportunity to utilize the Bear-y Tales IP (after all, Mrs. Knott's has her own restaurant we can visit anytime).

So why didn't they return? The honest (and probably obvious) answer is that I simply don't know. Besides the aforementioned changes since last year, there just isn't really any reason they shouldn't have. One would think the Bear-y Tales theme (or even Peanuts) would be more appealing to children than Mrs. Knott's but who am I to say. I may be delusional, but I choose to believe that Crafty Coyote is pulling one over us and that the Bear-y Tales re-introduction during past Boysenberry Festivals was soo successful that there is now something BIG (and more permanent) in the works for the Bear-y Tales gang outside of simply events. Only time will tell...