When it comes to free festivals, this one is the best kept secret in Florida. Located in the heart…read moreof true Florida, Clewiston is every bit of American farm culture as anywhere in the US. The town welcomes you in and you feel true American spirit without any political sabotage. Family friendly, while still delivering that turn it up country party vibe. Not easy to pull of btw. Opening nite show with Don Felder of the Eagles with a big firework finale was enough to call it a successful event. Saturday car show was a trip down memory lane. Tons of agriculture and farming equipment and history on display. The Saturday concert list was full of talent and good vibes. Food booths for miles and plenty of retailers offering all sorts of relevant products. Then Jake Owen closed the festival with his signature crowd focused show. Free??? I almost don't want to post this so we can keep it a secret! If you want real Florida, country, American shenanigans, check it out. Hats off to Big Sugar for making it all happen.

Every year at end of the sugar cane harvest season, Clewiston, known as "America's Sweetest Town,"…read morecelebrates the harvest with its Clewiston Sugar Festival center in the city's Civic Park located on Highway 27 right next to its historic Clewiston Inn. It's at this event that everyone gets a close-up look at what sugar cane farming is all about with large outdoor stage entertainment, bands, singers, vendors, foods, and "Sugarland Express" tours where you are not only offered the opportunity to see, view and learn the latest in sugar farming techniques but to also chop and chew on some of the world's best sugar cane. The Sugar Festival I attended was Clewiston's 30th such event, which locals commonly refer to their "Raising Cane" party. It's based upon their original such event by United States Sugar company back it the 1930's held when the grinding mill "went down" after the last carload of the year's harvested sugar was grinded out. The festival also celebrates Clewiston's surroundings like Lake Okeechobee as well as its neighboring partners such as the Seminole Nation. Though it's a large event gathering and played up rather big by the local Clewiston Chamber of Commerce, being fun, educational and entertaining, not really all that much as far as festivals go. This may be due in part as Clewiston really isn't all that much of a city with so many of the local farm workers being of migrant farm labor from Mexico, Jamaica and Barbados, living in migrant farm housing and the sugar industry itself generally owing its prosperity to various federally set sugar price supports, USDA regulated sugar allotments and tariff rate quotas. Indeed, if you are foodie and looking to try new or authentic foreign tastes in foods, I found those of Mexico to be your best bet though there are many local South Florida vendor offerings such as gator burgers, etc.

We're in town, visiting for my wife's 30th birthday, and we found this festival! We jumped on it bc…read morewho doesn't love food and beer! Tickets were $30. I think that was fair as the beer samples are unlimited however, you have to pay for food (so don't think it's an all inclusive deal). The event was 12-8p which gives you plenty of time to drink, eat, and relax. There was music and beautiful views of the river. About halfway through, the breweries started to run out of beer. I don't think they were expecting such a great turn out and this event was double the time most of the tasting events usually are. This was their first annual so there will always be hiccups in the beginning. I had a good time and I'd most likely return for another.

Over 300 artists set up shop this weekend for the annual Art Fest. The event is free, pet friendly…read moreand on the water. Gorgeous oceanside location with bus shuttles and parking was available across the street for twenty dollars. We went with the $20 option which was without a doubt well worth it. The festival was packed with people of all ages & it was lovely seeing so many people spending the day outdoors with their precious fur babies. Several food vendors were on hand selling crabcakes, gyros, lobster rolls, souvlaki, stir fry, frozen lemonade, fresh squeezed lemonade, and so much more. We had lunch before we came so I didn't try any of the food. The smell of freshly popped popcorn was tempting but I wasn't hungry. The artists set up tents, gallery style with special lighting to showcase their work. Jewelry, sculpture, woodwork, paintings, large unusual mailboxes, fine delicate silk tops; it was all here plus so much more. Coming here wasn't planned but once I found out about it I was excited to go, although I do wish I had my sneakers on. I had a good time and enjoyed some sunny Florida weather for a change. This is an annual event and I hope to return next year, in my sneakers of course.

It was supposed to be a cloudy hot day on this wonderful Sunday in Juno Beach. I had read from one…read moreof my Yelp friends that there was a Juno ArtFest by the ocean on A1A. From what I read, there are about three hundred national and international artists showcasing art of all kinds. As we drove close to the ArtFest, we noticed that there was preferred parking for twenty dollars. I of course was not going to have any of that. So I found a close by hideaway and parked for free with others that had the same idea. The good news was that my car was still there when I returned three hours later. It was a free pet friendly experience with many diverse art items on display such as sculpture, jewelry, woodwork, paintings, wearable art, live plants, along with delicious fast food and drinks. It was sweaty blast and somehow we found a way to once again purchase numerous creative artistic pictures & sculptures that we will wonder why we bought a month later. Well, we will probably give them as gifts to our kids which they will probably re-gift them eventually to somebody else. Overall it was a great way to spend a wonderful beautiful Sunday in Juno Beach.

As the Seafood and music festival has grown, so has the venue location. The '26 rendition was…read moreheld at the Sarasota Fairgrounds on Ringling off Fruitville. Now known as Sarasota Seafood and Music festival. Lots of food- seafood, hamburgers and carnival fried food plus bands and many merchants. I got a plate of jambalaya (a bit too salty) but loaded with sausage and shrimp (good deal for $20). Lots of beer options to wash it down(beer vendors took credit cards). Free parking and admission although you need to buy tickets for food.

This Seafood Festival is much better than the Tampa one we went to…read more There is a new parking garage in town for .50 an hour and your dog is welcome. I think the walkways are too hot for their paws right now, however people have pets here. We ordered a 3 item platter to share with Grouper, Coconut Shrimp and Jambalaya. We were happy with the $24.00 price and the food was very good. The Grouper needed another minute of cook time, it was still fresh and mild. The Jambalaya had Mahi in it and Sausage which was flavorful. There is a stage with live music that adds to the events fun factor and admission is free!

The The LaBelle Heritage Museum is part of the LaBelle downtown historic district. The museum is…read morelocated in the historic William Hardy Poole Store built in 1911 which was purchased by the museum in 2011. Besides serving as the Poole Store and home the building was also a church, the O'Ferrell Honey House, and most recently a real estate company. Now it is the home of the LaBelle Heritage Museum. The purpose of the museum is "to gather and disseminate the history of the county's pioneer families. To preserve historical sites, buildings and artifacts. To promote historical research by the protection and safe keeping of all materials relating to the significant development of the area. To present programs which make history "come alive" with special emphasis to our younger generation." The museum is currently undergoing renovations. It is being remodeled to make room for museum exhibits on the first floor and office space on the second floor. The H. Aiken-Rider home has been moved to the property and is located at the rear of the parking lot. It is being used as the temporary office & display area. The museum also owns the Rider law office and the rotary steam turbine that Edward Christopher Warren, an associate of Nikola Tesla, designed and installed in the Herreshoff yacht Navette, which was built for J. P. Morgan in 1901. When not closed due to the virus, the normal museum operations are Thursday. Friday, and Saturday from 10 am to 1 pm. It is staffed by volunteers. I love this kind of small town history museum. Apparently work on the museum is going slowly because they have to rely on grant money. When they finally finish the museum it will anchor the downtown historic area. I admire that they were able to save some historic structures especially when so many have been demolished.

What an awesome way to celebrate at a local event and eat some great food. It was the 58th annual…read moreshrimp festival in Fort Myers Beach! The north end of the island gets really crowded with the celebrations. Saturday included a 5k run and the voting for the annual shrimp festival queen. We attended on Sunday, which was a bit more quiet and included a 1pm all you can eat shrimp contest. The main organization is done by the FMB Lyons club. There are abundant choices for food or shopping in the few block area of the festival. For us, the main event is eating the peel and eat Florida pink gulf shrimp! Yum! We try to attend every year, as it is a fun time and a great fundraiser for the community!

It was pretty great and I even enjoyed it considering I don't love seafood! I had some fried shrimp…read moreand some fries. There were tons of other varieties available and lots of other food options that I was certainly not brave enough to try. There were also plenty of vendors around selling food and trinkets they had available, and it was all along the beautiful beach. Definitely give it a try.

4 stars for a no holds barred food truck festival extraordinaire!…read more 40 gourmet food trucks from all over Florida set up shop at Top Rocker Field for a feast of yumminess. From latin american, to bbq, to fresh new engalnd lobster, and the ever popular gourmet burger...you would not be wanting for any type of cuisine. Free admission, so inside was jam-packed with insane lines at each truck. Clearly they were at and maybe beyond crowd capacity. Way too many people and it was so hot out. In fact, saw a few EMS situations going on. Yikes! So we decided to divide and conquer two lines since we knew we would be waiting forever at any one. Ended up waiting 45 minutes in line, but it wasn't for lack of effort of the staff. You could tell each food truck was working hard for their money. The wait was definitely a bit over the top, but thankfully the food was totally worth it! It was great that the food trucks accepted cash and credit. Most dishes were $10 or under for very hearty servings. You needed to buy drink tix for beers, but that was as expected to best monitor any under age drinking. Parking was a pain, as we had to park almost a mile away from the venue. Ughhh! So glad I wore my walking shoes! Luckily, we walked in without a wait, but by the time we left there was a line wrapping out into the parking lot. There was some fun live music playing and a cute little kids entertainment area (music therapy section, face painting, and the oh so popular bounce houses). While the food was unreal, it was just way too crowded! I would have given it a definite 5 had they managed the crowds better. Hopefully, they figure out a better plan for the next time.

There was supposed to be off-site parking, with shuttle bus service to the venue. However,…read moredirections to off-site parking weren't posted as we approached Six Bends. It seems the people directing vehicle traffic weren't really coordinated, allowing cars to enter full and dead end parking lots. Could even see the shuttle bus stuck in all this. Was about to leave with all the grid lock, but someone pulled out. As other people who posted have said, the food choices were good. My favorite was the gyro/souvlaki/kebab truck. I got here at 2PM and some of the food trucks were already sold out. This made the lines at the remaining trucks unbearably long. The organizers could also get in a little more diversity next year. We can get Cuban sandwiches and boiled hot dogs anytime we want in SWFL. How about bringing in a falafel or banh mi truck from Tampa/St. Pete ?