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Berry Festival Rule Changes Are Part Of Transformation

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By DAVE NICHOLSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 13, 2008

PLANT CITY - Visitors to the Florida Strawberry Festival will notice some changes this year, from a large gate to get them into the grounds faster to a strictly enforced ban on eating and drinking in livestock tents.

In wide-ranging remarks this morning to Greater Plant City Chamber of Commerce members, festival officials touted its successes, its improvements and some of the challenges it has faced.

Here are some of the highlights:

* The festival will enforce a ban on eating and drinking in livestock tents to ensure visitors and exhibitors don't risk exposure to E. coli bacteria, which is not uncommon in animals. Livestock exhibitors could be ejected if they ignore the ban, festival general manager Patsy Brooks said.

In 2005, several festival visitors were sickened by E. coli 0157:H7 that health officials linked to a festival petting zoo. The festival has settled lawsuits from the illnesses but will make several changes, including more warning signs of the health risks of being around livestock and the need for hand-washing when one has been in a livestock area.

"If we don't do this, we won't have insurance. We won't have a festival," Brooks said.

* The festival will enforce a ban on distribution of candy or beads at the Grand Feature Parade on March 3.

Plant City banned distribution of goodies at parades after the death of a 9-year-old Inverness boy who was run over by a church float while he was helping distribute candy at the Christmas parade on Dec. 7.

The festival was planning to ban distribution of candy or beads at its parade even before the boy was killed, because of insurance concerns, festival president Gary Boothe said.

* The festival spent about $500,000 for expanded ticket sale windows and gates at Oak Avenue and Woodrow Wilson Street to get visitors more quickly into the festival grounds.

* The festival's budget includes $1.5 million for headline entertainment, $300,000 for advertising, $250,000 for security and $100,000 for free on-grounds entertainment such as singers and racing pigs.

* In the next two years, the festival expects to spend $2.5 million to $3 million moving agriculture facilities to the west, Boothe said.

Brooks said the festival is considered about the 25th largest in the country.

Brooks, Boothe and festival director Mike Sparkman were the featured speakers at the chamber's monthly membership breakfast.

Reporter Dave Nicholson can be reached at (813) 865-4432 or dnicholson@tamptrib.com.

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