This year was the 28th annual Pelican Island Wildlife Festival. The festival is held from 10:00 AM…read more- 4:00 PM in Riverview Park in Sebastian to commemorate the birthday of the refuge on March 14, 1903. Pelican National Wildlife refuge was created by one man's determination to protect the birds he loved. Paul Kroegel was a German immigrant and Sebastian resident and conservationist. He arrived in Sebastian in 1881 and homesteaded on the west bank of the Indian River across from Pelican Island. As he watched the birds on the island he fell in love with them and became increasingly disturbed by the hunters killing them. He took to protecting the birds by guarding them with his shotgun during a time when they had no lawful protection. Paul enlisted the help of the American Ornithologists Union and the Florida Audubon Society to help protect the birds. They joined together to pass legislation for protection of non-game birds. The Florida Audubon Society hired Paul Kroegel along with three other wardens to protect the birds from plume hunters and the sports hunters who would shoot at the birds while passing by on boats. During the time Paul served, two of the other wardens were murdered. Naturalist Frank Chapman and his fellow advocate, William Dutcher went to Theodore Roosevelts New York home to plead their case for the protection of the birds. In response President Roosevelt made Pelican Island the first National Wildlife Refuge in 1903. Paul Kroegel was hired as the first national wildlife refuge manager. He passed away in 1948. Since then the land was threatened in the 1960's developers attempted to buy the surrounding wetlands but local citizens stopped them. The Indian River Area Preservation League made up of local citrus growers, commercial fishermen, and sportsmen, joined with the Florida Audubon Society to convince the State to include the islands as a part of the refuge. In 1963, Pelican Island was designated as a National Historic Landmark by the Secretary of the Interior. Since then the refuge has gained over 500 more acres to help protect it from encroachment by development. There is a large parking lot with free parking adjacent to the park. Entrance to the festival is free. The event has live wildlife shows, food, environmental exhibitors, arts & crafts, a rehabilitated pelican release, raffle, amateur photography contest, native plant sale, educational presentations, historical reenactments with President Theodore Rossevelt, and for a fee boat tours to Pelican Island. I specially loved seeing all of the birds brought by the Treasure Coat Wildlife Center. Sadly because of their injuries, these birds can't be released into the wild and I was happy to donate to them. President Roosevelt is the Master of Ceremonies and is portrayed by Theodore Roosevelt interpreter, Joe Wiegand. He gave a wonderful presentation that taught about the history of Pelican Island and his efforts to protect its birds as well as other events in the life of President Roosevelt. The 2020 Pelican Island Wildlife Festival celebrated the 117th anniversary of the Pelican Island National Wildlife Reserve. The event is hosted by the Pelican Island Preservation Society and the City of Sebastian. It is a fantastic way to bring awareness to the refuge. Even though the festival is only held one day a year, you can visit the refuge 365 days a year.

This is a large arts and crafts fair being held at the Indian River County Fairgrounds January…read more15-16, Sat 10 am to 5 pm and Sun 10 am to 4 pm. The event is outside underneath cover. Admission and parking are both free. Dogs are welcome and the event is wheelchair accessible. The expo features 150 vendors selling food, wood, glass, plants, pottery, art, jewelry, accessories, clothing, and home goods. There were a variety of interesting and affordable things to look at. My favorites were the licorice and fudge, local honey, fruit salsa, sea glass wind chimes, and the copper bird baths. I love anything tropical themed with mermaids and flamingoes. In addition to the shopping there was also several food trucks, adult beverages, and live music. Next door to the Craft Expo, the Home Show was held in the David W. Fleetwood Exposition Center. It was also free admission. Parking was easy and plentiful and the weather was beautiful. Both events are going on tomorrow so come out and enjoy.

10 out of 10! This festival committee knows how to through a great party! The food was great!…read moreReasonable priced and great quality. The vendor booths were too notch!' The entertainment SO AMAZING! We saw Almighty Queen. I really felt like I was watching an actual Freddy Queen Concert! I would follow them anywhere! Great talent!! I will definitely come back next year!! Thank you.

If you get there by mid-morning, parking is not a problem, and you're able to park right on the…read moregrounds instead of having to go to the airport and take a shuttle. We sampled so many different types of foods, and all were fresh and good as you'd expect. Not the best in any category, but perfectly good. My favorite were the sweet puppies which were essentially hush puppies, but with sugar. Live music played throughout, and the band when we were there was surprisingly good.

It's a wonderful festival family oriented. We go every year absolutely love it. It looks like it's…read moregonna be cold this year so it's still gonna go and bundle up. I don't like to miss it for anything.

The Fellsmere Frog Leg Festival was created in 1990 to raise funds for children's programs in town…read more Proposed by Fran Adams and other local residents, it was thought that frogs legs might be unique enough to draw people to the town. For the first festival, 400 pounds of frogs from the surrounding marshes were caught and sold as fund raiser dinners cooked outside. Now the meals are prepared in the basement of the historic Fellsmere school. Money from the festival has been used to restore the school and now it houses the City Administrative offices, the Boys & Girls Club, and a community space. The event has now put Fellsmere on the map as the Frog Leg Capital of the World. It is held annually during the third week of January. 2022 was the festivals 31st year and it began on Thursday and ran through Sunday. The Frog Leg Festival holds 2 Guinness Book World Records for The Most Frog Legs served in the course of one business day and the Largest Frog Leg Festival in the world. Every year 80,000 attendees are served over 7,000 pounds of frog legs and 2,000 pounds of alligator. As you pull into town there is a field you can park in and grab a shuttle bus but I was able to find parking on the side of the road pretty close to the festival. You don't have to worry about being toad. LOL The festival is held on the grounds of the historic school in downtown Fellsmere. If you are adverse to eating frogs legs and alligator there are other booths selling all kinds of carnival food. Also selling food is the nearby historic Marsh Landing restaurant along with several Mexican restaurants and a bar on North Broadway Street.. The festival also has rides, games, live entertainment, displays, and shopping. Depending on the day, you can purchase an all you can ride wristband for 20 or 25 dollars. The local high school sells T-shirts which feature a different design every year. I love the old Florida feeling in Fellsemere and always wanted to attend this festival. I was not in to eating frogs legs or alligator however. I still had a great time walking around and visiting the different booths, listening to the music, and enjoying the hometown feel of the festival. This festival is well known in Florida and since Fellmere is centrally located it draws people from the south and north. This years festival is over so get a hop on it and mark your calendar for 2023.

The Third Annual Vero Beach Wine + Film Festival is jampacked with films that I might not otherwise…read moresee. I just finished viewing the first film of the festival, a documentary about the life and music of jazz pianist Bill Evans. It was well done and I learned a lot about a musician that I long admired but knew little. Tonight there is a vintners dinner. Over the next three days and there are number of wine tastings and movie screenings to look forward to. The Festival is using venues throughout Vero Beach so I'm getting to see parts of the city. You should check at the event website if you are interested in all the scheduled films and activities. There will be opportunities to interact with actors and directors. Overall, the Festival is well-organized. There have been a number of the last minute changes to the program, but I understand this is unavoidable with this kind of event. If you do intend to sign up this year or in the future, be aware of the fact that the films actually start 30 minutes after the posted showtime--but you should get there early because in some of the venues it's hard to see the screen if you are far back. It's not exactly Sundance, but it really is surprisingly high level. It's fun as well.

Not very happy with our experience here today. Had a flyer that said seniors over 65 (that's us)…read morewere supposedly FREE. Got to the ticket booth - NOT free "until 6 PM." The flyer did NOT say anything about a time exception. So we paid to get in. Paid for parking. Rides, well, we are a little older but those prices looked high for what they had. Food? HIGH prices for everything! And there were no picnic tables or places to sit and eat or drink your food and drink. One beer tent had a few tables and chairs, but those were instantly filled or "saved." Lemonade was weak, ESPECIALLY the $5 refill (cold water with sugar describes it.). It was supposed to be a key lime festival, but only saw one booth that had some Keylime pie and that was $35 for a pie. Ridiculous! Spent over$53 and left wishing we had gone anywhere else. Sorry- just not a good value.

Lots of rides suitable for babies through adults that you can ride for the entry price of $25,…read moreweekdays have a discount and there were coupons available. I went the last day of the fair. The bull riding event was a treat but no bleachers and limited viewing. It's not much of a 4H event, the animal highlight after bullriding were a piglet feed and parakeet feed. Lots of shows with admissions, some rock bands, magic, plus characters for selfies. Plenty of food options the barbecued kebabs looked like a treat while lots of sugar options like cotton candy and deep fried Oreos were available. Lots of parking available, local lot was $5. Outhouses offered a wash station and lots of sanitizer around.

Good food, family friendly atmosphere. Lots of beer... lol…read moreSuper nice crowd. Great deserts... Parking is a little high for this kind of event but the cometary lot is a low income cometary and the money helps them so whatever... They run out of the good stuff so get there early...

Zombietoberfest was a nice evening out in the cool weather that Saturday brought us. There was a…read morebounce house and a big open field for the kids to run around and play, Ghostbusters was playing on a big screen in an open grassy area, there was a zombie walk, people doing zombie makeup-which was fun, vendors, and food trucks. It was all nice but I personally would have liked to see more vendors and more activities. I was surprised to find there was plenty of free parking in area businesses and along the streets; it made that part of the fest all the better. We purchased a few cupcakes from Bluebird and unfortunately they were rather dry; you could tell they had been sitting out quite a while. I've heard rave reviews about Bluebird so I won't fault them entirely since they did have to bake ahead of time and store them at their outside booth. I love this time of year and Zombietoberfest was an enjoyable time out, doing something different. If you are big into Halloween and/or zombies, I would definitely recommend a visit next year.

This powwow is usually a good one but due to some scheduling conflicts it wasn't the same. The…read morepowwow is usually held under the Agriculture Pavilion but a Dog Show was being held there at the same time so it was moved out onto the grassy field. The dance arena was also made smaller and there was not as many vendors this year either. My friends were the Head Man and Head Lady dancers so I decided to come down and support them. There were 3 Native American drums this year, two from here in Florida and one from North Carolina. They travelled a long way to get out of the cold and snow. I can't blame them for that. While some of the songs that were being sung were not familiar to me, I did my best to keep up with the beat (Yes, I do dance at powwows). I The only major downside to this powwow was who they chose to be Emcee. He said a lot of things deemed "too political" for a powwow setting where we are supposed to be sharing the culture and not putting down other countries, or stating to vets that it's "their fault" we have our freedom. Poor choice of words. I'm sure that this event will be better next year once these things get straightened out.

So much to stuff to do, see, hear, purchase and eat! I loved…read moreit here :) Pricing over average; I feel like if vendors brought it down just $5 they'd sell waaaay more :/ Fun for all: it's been a beautiful day, hanging with beautiful people, enjoyed a great vibe :D Thanks Port Salerno Seafood Festival!!!! You can trust me; I'm happy ;D

the vendors are getting waaay out of hand pricewise. We will…read morenot go back after several years of going and enjoying this festival...but we're done' Eats for my wife and i were about $95.00 bucks. (my wife is 4'11" and 98 pounds)