LAKELAND, Fla. — Bigfoot, Sasquatch or Skunk Ape — all names for the popular cryptid getting a convention dedicated specifically to it in Florida.
Believers of Bigfoot and the Skunk Ape will gather together Saturday in Lakeland.
The first annual Great Florida Bigfoot Convention is set to begin at 9 a.m. July 10 at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland, according to its website.
The convention boasts an "all-star" lineup of Bigfoot researchers, investigators and authors.
The one-day event starts at 9 a.m. and ends at 6:30 p.m. and is open to the public. Tickets for the convention start at $20 and can be found online.
Here in Florida, Bigfoot is known as the Skunk Ape. The official Skunk Ape Research Headquarters are located in Ochopee on Tamiami Trail near Naples. According to the headquarters' website, the legend of the Skunk Ape goes back 100s of years "in the oral history of the indigenous people and the settlers of the Florida Everglades."
In a 2019 interview with CBS Miami, Dave Shealy, who has dedicated his life to studying the Skunk Ape, told the news outlet he believes there are between seven to nine Skunk Apes living in the Everglades.
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