As we reflect on the 2016 Florida Strawberry Festival, we can’t help but be overcome with gratitude. As all of us in the fair industry know, our work is similar to that of an athlete; we work tirelessly for an entire year to host an event that seems to last only minutes. And for those of us at the Florida Strawber-
ry Festival, this year was no different. It was a tough Festival for us to plan, but it ended up being one of our greatest Festivals yet. Several facets of our planning this year required more thought, time
and creativity than ever. To begin with, our entertainment lineup, which serves as one of our biggest draws, was a bear to compile. The rising cost of entertainment, exclusive contracts and influx of music festivals in our area made this one of our most difficult lineups to complete. The second difficulty was the added pressure of “beefing up” our security. We had no specific threats, but the state of our world causes us to be- come more concerned about the safety of our patrons with each passing year. We desperately wanted to be vigilant in that effort this year. And, of course, the final threat that never goes away is weather. These three combined added much more pressure to the already short 12 months we are given to plan. While sometimes strenuous, we wanted to be diligent and efficient in
tackling our struggles. With our entertainment, it was simply a lesson in “If at first you don’t succeed, try try again.” After nearly 100 offers and 2 last-minute cancellations, we secured a lineup of 24 headline entertain- ers. To concentrate more effort on security, we decided to bring on Tim Lovett, a 28-year veteran of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office as
Florida Fairs and Events Played by the Banana Derby
Florida Fair News
our full-time security manager. In addition to added law enforcement inside the grounds and around our perimeter, we implemented wanding patrons for weapons at each entry gate. Much to our surprise, our patrons did not mind being wanded and appeared to appreciate the added securi- ty. With all of these additions, we are proud to report that we had zero arrests, zero ejections and zero significant threats with an attendance of 560,487. Through no effort of our own we were blessed with tremendous
weather. The temperature on most days was no higher than mid-80s, and the rain held off until the last 30 minutes of our final day. At that point, we didn’t mind at all. We are not naïve to think we will have this kind of weather every year, but we are grateful we were blessed with it this time. We hesitate to say that the 2016 Festival was a record year, but we can
confidently say it was probably our all-around best yet. It has taken us 81 years to get to this point, and we continue to learn. We extend our sincere appreciation to those of you who came to lend your support and encouragement. We are thankful for our friends in the Federation and wish you all the best in your respective fairs. More about Tim in the Fall issue of The Firecracker.
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Seminole Indian Casino- Hollywood Florida 23
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