Kelsey Morgan was named 2013 Florida Strawberry Queen at the Florida Strawberry Festival in Plant City.
In spite of some “cold” temperatures that dipped into the 50s and 40s in the evenings, attendance at the Florida Strawberry Festival in Plant City was on par with last year’s, slightly higher at 526,100, compared to last year’s 525,300.
“It’s good because last year was the best year we ever had, not just attendancewise,” said GM Paul Davis. “It was the best year we had having a successful event. Spending was up 14 percent and we were coming off a high the year before. This went up again, about 4 percent.”
Weather was “a concern” during the first several days of the Feb. 28-March 10 fair, Davis said, when temperatures dipped down into the 50s and even into the 40s in the evenings.
“We were down the first weekend,“ he added. “And then we had a strong end of the week and a record-breaking Saturday and Sunday to finish our season out.”
Recording the number of fairgoers has improved in the past few years with the implementation of a ticketing system that scans bar codes.
“It really does feel more accurate than ever,” Davis said. “Before then it was kind of a sophisticated guess.”
Etix has been doing the festival’s tickets for four years and after clearing a few hurdles – such as getting wireless coverage at every gate – the system has been getting an accurate count of paying fairgoers as well as anyone who gets comp tickets, for instance, through a sponsoring radio station. Media and those going to the agricultural areas are not counted, Davis said.
On the last Saturday, attendance broke a single-day record with 88,000 fairgoers passing through the gates, only to be broken again on Sunday when that figure was exceeded by 10,000 at 98,000.
That Sunday, March 10 figure was aided by two sell-out concerts – the only two in a 26-act lineup – when country singer Hunter Hayes played in the afternoon, followed by Blake Shelton in the evening.
“We have 3,000 free seats, so we had many people on the grounds,” Davis said.
Concerts take place in the Wish Farms Soundstage, an old football stadium that has a capacity of about 12,000, with 8,500 paid seats and 3,000 free seats, Davis said.
“We had all those people leaving after the Hunter Hayes concert and coming for Blake Shelton,” he added. “It caused quite a traffic jam. We did everything we could. We had law enforcement trying to keep it smooth but we need more parking.
“That’s a good problem to have.”
The fair has about 60 acres of parking, charges $5 a spot and runs a shuttle. Some fairgoers end up having to park in neighboring church parking lots and even in neighbors’ yards, generally for $5 or maybe $10 for closer spots, Davis said.
The concert budget came to $2 million, Davis said, on par with last year. That meant most days there were two or three concerts. Opening day, Feb. 28, was one example. It was senior day and the first two concerts – polka musician Jimmy Sturr in the morning for free and Chubby Checker in the afternoon for $15 or $20; both were popular with senior citizens who took advantage of the gate discount.
“We gear a lot of stuff toward seniors that day,” Davis said. “We put out a dance floor for the polka band.”
Then that evening, rock band Foreigner played.
“Seniors usually leave by 6:30 p.m.”
Other acts that hit at least 10,000 in attendance were “American Idol” winner Scotty McCreery and Alan Jackson, Davis said. Oldies act Bobby Vinton also did well.
Other well-known acts included Casting Crowns, Lorrie Morgan and Pam Tillis on a shared billing; Dwight Yoakam; Martina McBride; Neal McCoy; Trace Adkins; Mel Tillis; Brantley Gilbert; T.G. Sheppard/Janie Fricke; Gaither Vocal Band and Bret Michaels.
Deltona, Fla.-based Belle City Amusements placed more than 90 rides on the midway, Davis said. The carnival was up. Armbands cost $20 most days and $25 on Sunday, but patrons who brought in cans of Mountain Dew got $5 off.
Owner Charles Panacek said he has not finished doing the math yet but he expects the numbers to be high.
“We were up over last year,” he said. “It looks like this year is the biggest year we’ve had there.”
This was the fifth year Belle City Amusements has played the Florida Strawberry Festival.
New rides included a Sky Swing, a Zamperla Air Raid, the Fun Factory, and a new funhouse called Big Bamboo, Panacek said.
Gate admission remained the same as last year, Davis said, at $8 and $4 for ages 7-12, and $10 and $5 at the gate. “It’s been the same for about 10 years,” he added.
The year-round operating budget is $7 million, Davis said. The budget for marketing is in the $700,000-$800,000 range. All types of media are utilized, including billboards, newspaper, TV and radio. The marketing theme for the year was “Our Masterpiece of Fun,” with the festival’s Mr. Strawberry character shown with a painter’s hat and mustache painting on a canvas that said “Florida Strawberry Festival.”
Next year’s dates are Feb. 27 to March 9.
Interviewed for this article: Paul Davis, (813) 752-9194; Charles Panacek, (407) 399-1831