PLANT CITY, Fla. — This year‘s Florida Strawberry Festival in Plant City is seeing a bumper crop — of visitors.
Organizers say the fair is back up to pre-pandemic levels, and the impact those numbers are having on the local economy goes well beyond the entrance gates.
“It’s a boom for everybody around,” said Festival President Paul Davis. “And when everybody leaves here happy, we’ve done our job.”
Organizers said they are back big way, returning to pre-pandemic attendance levels thanks to a combination of an appetite for outside entertainment and a fortunate run of warm dry weather.
“The weather has been beautiful,” said Davis. “You’ve got to give that to the Lord. He took care of us.”
Attracting a crowd is also no accident.
The festival recently invested a million dollars in expanded and upgraded restroom facilities, added outdoor decorations ad murals and keeps on attracting big-name entertainment.
With good weather festival organizers say they could approach 600,000 visitors this year. Not too shabby when you consider Plant City’s entire population is right around 35,000.
That also has a retail ripple effect.
“It definitely helps us,” said downtown business owner Michael Gartz. “It brings a lot of people downtown. They spend money. It’s just nice meeting people from different areas.”
The challenge going forward say fair organizers might be a tough economy. So, they’re already planning ahead — concentrating on offering value.
“You have to give people a reason to come,” said Davis. “And I think we’re good at southern hospitality, and we still, trite as it may sound, we’re still a slice of Americana where we offer up the best of our community has to offer.”