The Floral City Strawberry Festival is a salute to local agriculture. Ferris Farms, our local grower, supplies hundreds of flats of strawberries that are made into fresh strawberry shortcakes, and are also sold fresh to festival-goers to bring home to make their own strawberry delicacies.
The festival will open Saturday morning with the posting of the colors, the Pledge of Allegiance, and Citrus County Clerk of Courts Angela Vick singing the national anthem, followed by the Little Miss Strawberry Princess and Miss Strawberry Princess pageants.
Fresh strawberries from local grower Ferris Groves will be available for purchase! Fresh-picked full and half flats will be located at the strawberry flats tent next to the shortcake tent. For ease in carrying them to your car, flats will also be available at each gate as well as the shuttle bus parking lot at the County Auditorium.
The extremely popular and extremely messy pie-eating contests return on both Saturday and Sunday. There will be contests for adults, along with special contests for the little ones and maybe even super competitive “rival” contests. Sign ups to participate in the contests will take place onsite at the festival both mornings.
Children’s activities play a big role in the Strawberry Festival and will keep the little ones entertained for hours. Look for a petting zoo, an exciting variety of inflatables and bounce houses, the ever-popular aqua tumble bubbles, a climbing rock wall and much more.
Nearly 300 booths filled with craft artists, local non-profits, and commercial vendors will make shopping a pleasure. And let’s not forget about the food! Everything from seafood to BBQ, frozen smoothies and ice creams, craft sodas to homemade pretzels will ensure that you will not go home hungry. Enjoy an ice-cold beer or sip wine at the beer garden by the main stage.