Third Day performs on the Wish Farms soundstage at the Florida Strawberry Festival, Plant City.
Two good weather weekends meant a 1-percent attendance increase at the Florida Strawberry Festival in Plant City, Fla., up to 531,659 from last year’s 526,100.
“Last year we lost a weekend and it really put us behind,” Davis said. “The first weekend was really cold but this year we had two good weekends.”
That does not mean the Feb. 27-March 9 event was completely smooth sailing, with a lost Thursday that did not see the Belle City Amusements midway open until late.
“We had one really bad rainy day and one that drizzled, but we didn’t lose a weekend,” Davis added.
The Deltona, Fla.-based Belle City Amusements placed about 90 rides on the midway, including the popular Scorpion, Davis said. The carnival was up about 2 percent, a higher rate than the attendance increase.
Riders could purchase pay-one-price armbands for $20 on weekdays and $25 on Sunday, with the opportunity to purchase the Sunday armband for $20 by bringing in a Pepsi product. Armbands were not available on Saturday.
The 12,000-seat Wish Farms Soundstage did not have any sellouts, but bands that came close included Rascal Flatts, Little Big Town, The Band Perry, Boyz II Men, Josh Turner and Styx.
The Florida Strawberry Festival presents two and occasionally three concerts each day and has an entertainment budget of $2 million just for the big-name concert guarantees, Davis said. Grounds entertainment was an additional $300,000-$400,000.
About 3,000 of the 12,000 seats are free bleachers in an old football stadium, while the rest are reserved paid seats lined up on the ground of the stadium, Davis said.
A few acts were free, such as Jimmy Sturr and the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, each of whom played in the morning on senior’s days, as well as Caroline Kole.
Bands that commanded the higher-priced tickets were Rascal Flatts, $55, and Little Big Town and The Band Perry, $40 each.
Other bands and ticket prices included Shoji Tabuchi, $15 and $20; Styx, $25 and $30; B.J. Thomas, $15 and $20; Colt Ford, $15 and $20; Love and Theft, $15 and $20; Thompson Square, $25; Charley Pride, $15 and $20; Josh Turner, $20 and $25; Brenda Lee, $15 and $20; Kellie Pickler, $15 and $20; Crystal Gayle, $15 and $20; Lee Brice, $20 and $25; Oak Ridge Boys, $15 and $20; Third Day, $15 and $20; John Anderson, $15 and $20; Boys II Men, $20 and $25; Dustin Lynch, $15 and $20; Jerrod Niemann, $20 and $25; and Easton Corbin, $15 and $20.
Gate admission cost $8 in advance, and $10 at the door, which has been the price for about 10 years, Davis said. Children's tickets were $4 and $5. Davis expected gate revenues to be up about 2 percent over last year, but all tickets were not in as of last week.
The marketing budget was about $500,000, he said. In addition to doing both traditional and social media, with the latter relying on ticket giveaways, the fair also has found it worthwhile to set up areas where both sponsors and the media can get indoors, relax and have something to eat.
That seems to mean a rise in both sponsorship and on-grounds media coverage, he said.
“I don’t know if the economy is getting better or if we’re getting better equipped at treating our sponsors better and media people better,” he added. “We have a media house and the media people come in and sit down. We have four or five offices with high-speed Internet, food, water and drinks. The air conditioner is going, or the heat, depending on the situation.”
Fair officials offer a separate area for sponsors.
“We’ve learned how to spoil our sponsors and media partners,” Davis said. “We had seven or eight live (media) trucks here on opening day on the grounds most of the day. They really appreciate it.”
The fair also bought advertising on two area cable sites, Verizon and BrightHouse, which allowed the fair to target a variety of channels depending on the event.
“If you’re on a cable provider you can split it up between the news, young people’s channels, etc.,” he said. “You can put the rides on shows for the young kids. You really can split it up like that. We started that last year.”
Fair officials also run billboards all the way down to Orlando and Sarasota, using both traditional and digital billboards, Davis added.
In foods, “Strawberry was still king,” Davis said. “We have everything strawberry you can imagine – strawberry shortcake, strawberry pie, strawberry pizza, strawberry cobbler, strawberry milkshakes, even strawberry art. That’s probably king here.”
The fair offers an app that helps fairgoers find their cars but, unfortunately, Davis said, it’s more useful for customers who really are having trouble finding their cars and have to hop in a police or fair vehicle to find it, because it takes them along the roads as opposed to “as the crow flies.”
“It gets you there, it’s just longer than you need to use,” he added.
Next year’s dates will be Feb. 26 to March 8 and will be the festival’s 80th year, and officials have plans to play off the anniversary with a 1980s theme.
“We’re already making plans,” Davis said. “We have offers in to bands and we’re getting excited just thinking about 80 years. We’ll have some big hair bands. Some of those will be fun.”
Interviewed for this article: Paul Davis, (813) 752-9194.