Festivals

The Florida Folk Festival marks its 70th year at Stephen Foster State Park over Memorial Day Weekend 2022. The annual event celebrates Florida’s land, people and diverse cultural heritage.

Sebring, a small town along the lovely Lake Wales Ridge in Central Florida, is staking a claim for something new — Florida’s first (and only) craft soda festival, the Sebring Soda Festival. Local small-batch sodas made with real sugar are making a comeback, partly as an outgrowth of the craft beer phenomenon. This Sebring festival is a good opportunity to taste what it’s all about.

The Marathon Seafood Festival calls itself the Original Marathon Seafood Festival to emphasize it’s the real deal – indigenous and authentic. Marathon is a fishing town, and you don’t get fish any fresher than here, unless you catch it yourself.

The Grant Seafood Festival is put on by community volunteers and has been held every year since 1966 in this riverside enclave between Melbourne and Sebastian.

Like Cedar Key itself, the Cedar Key Art Festival is a slice of authentic Old Florida. This historic small town is located on an island on Florida’s Gulf Coast.

Bikers converge on Daytona Beach every March for Bike Week, but visitors often have a tough time finding a place to stay or camp and get lost in a sea of things-to-do.

The Florida Blueberry Festival highlights not just Florida’s blueberry crop but also Brooksville, a lovely unspoiled region of Florida that is a great place for hiking, biking, kayaking and exploring.

Like a state fair, the Strawberry Festival has agricultural displays, livestock shows, arts and crafts, local food and a huge carnival midway. But its entertainment line-up is what’s extraordinary year after year.

After a pandemic pause, the St. Augustine Lions Club Festival returns in 2022, reimagining its seafood festival past.

This isn’t frozen shrimp or imported shrimp or farmed shrimp. The huge boiling pots at the Fort Myers Beach Shrimp Festival are filled with fresh, right-off-the-boat Gulf pink shrimp. Members of the Lions Club have perfected the cooking technique over 50 years of Shrimp Festivals.

Florida’s seafood festival season kicks into high gear in January. Please note that there are many changes from traditional schedules due to COVID. Here’s your complete list, updated.

TAMPA — The Florida State Fair marks its 114th year. Our annual guide includes campground and lodging links with a full menu of things to do nearby.

You can get gator tail and swamp cabbage at this festival. But the real reason to go is to revel in a last corner of small town America in Florida — beauty pageants, high school bands, armadillo races and a rodeo.

Manatee festivals celebrate Florida’s beloved manatee in January in Crystal River and Orange City. The family events include good spots to view manatees.

Florida has a surprisingly rich history of rodeos in its small towns, and the one is Homestead is special. It’s the first rodeo of the year where professional cowboys can earn points. It’s back in 2022.

The Everglades Seafood Festival in Everglades City is back in 2022 with fresh local seafood, country music, carnival rides, arts and crafts.

These three Florida destinations have quaint Old Florida settings and go all-out with holiday decorations.