Florida Guide > Other Activities
Strawberry Festival
For a nice alternative to a day at one of the famous Orlando attraction, a visit to the annual Strawberry festival in Plant City is a must.
This year the Florida Strawberry Festival is being held from March 03rd through March 13th 2011. The venue is located in Plant City on a 2 mile gated fairground.
One of the top 50 fairs in America the Florida Strawberry Festival draws huge crowds from the local areas and from all over America as well as visitors from around the world. Last year (2010) the numbers visiting this event exceeded 500, 000.
The year 2010 marked the 75Th anniversary of the Strawberry Festival. This yearly community occurrence dates back to 1930 when the newly formed Lions Club of Plant City had the idea to celebrate the success of the strawberry crop grown in Plant City.
Since the 1970‘s the United States of America have been continually increasing their strawberry production due to it being a favorite fruit ingredient for jams, ice cream, milk shakes and a whole lot more goodies. The USA alone produces more strawberries than the whole world put together. Plant City where the festival is held was formerly home to the cotton growing industry. Florida is a close second to California as the nation’s top growing strawberry state,
An event offering something for everyone, concerts by top named entertainers, floats, strawberry shortcake contest, grand parades, marching bands craft fair you can even buy some of those delicious strawberries to take home and make your own strawberry concoction.
If you would like to participate in the fun why not put your name down for the Strawberry Shortcake eating contest, as this is a popular event the lucky 10 will be chosen by their lucky number a bit like a lottery draw. Registration for the contest starts at 2. 30pm and you must be over 18 years young. If you are one of the lucky 10 you will have great fun trying to eat your way through 4lbs. of strawberry shortcake covered in delicious whipped cream in 10 minutes. Don’t worry as you will be supplied with a bib to catch what your mouth misses, you will be given eating utensils to use. This event takes place at 3. 30pm March 10Th; the lucky one will receive an unusual trophy for their efforts. The . raining champ Tim “Tiny” Hawthorne a Plant City resident managed to beat his previous record last year, he know holds the fastest record in this contests at 4 minutes and 40 seconds, the trophy was rightly won and for his efforts he was presented with his trophy topped with a pig statue! !
For crafts and cuisine visit the Neighborhood Village area where you will be tempted by the large selection of hand made quilts, displays of hand knitted garments with something to temp everyone. The home baked cup cakes, cookies and great strawberry shortcake will be hard to resist? For $10. 00 you can purchase a copy of the local recipes?
For live entertainment head on over to the GTE Main Soundstage, the daily shows are 3. 30pm and 7. 30pm to get one of the free seats get there early as they are first come first seated If you would like make sure you see your favoiurite act you can reserve a seat, the cost varies from $10. 00 - $45. 00 depending on the act and the date, this is in addition to the festival entry fee. Adults entry fee is $10. 00 children aged 6 – 12 $5. 00. Wristbands can be purchased for the carnival rides for $20. 00 on promotional days.
The Midway area is where you will find the sideshow attractions and carnival rides.
At the east end of the grounds the racing pigs are the stars and will entertain all age groups. If thrill rides are for you, the moonlight magic area
It is sure to be a great day, as with all popular events there is going to be lots of traffic especially over the week-end so plan your day accordingly.
Pirates of the Colombian Caribbean, performing at 1pm 4pm and 8pm. The Irish dancers will entertain you with their talents of playing the fiddle, singing and an Irish jig or two. You can catch their performance at 11am, 3. 00pm and 7. 00 pm. in the Cool whip Topping Entertainment Tent.
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