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Sunshine is sweet for Swamp Fest

By LOGAN NEILL
Published March 5, 2007

HERNANDO BEACH - As she watched her 5-year-old son, Jared, race around the playground with other kids, Jill Duncan found a nice shady spot underneath an oak tree where she could finish her lunch.

"I'm hoping he tires himself out so we can go home," Duncan said. "He's gotten way too much sugar today."

Indeed, anyone with a sweet tooth had no trouble finding fulfillment Sunday at the Weeki Wachee Swamp Fest. Food vendors hawking such goodies as handmade candy, funnel cake and ice cream struggled to keep up with the surge of festival visitors who flooded Linda Pederson Park on Jenkins Creek.

Sunday's scene was completely opposite from the previous day, when the festival was all but shut down by persistent rain and wind.

"Saturday was a huge disappointment," said festival director Don Fish. "Most of the vendors ended up calling it a day by 2 o'clock. Luckily, once the weather got nice, people decided to come out."

By noon, parking lots around the park were full, forcing visitors to use remote lots on Cortez Boulevard. Once inside, there was lots for festivalgoers to see and do. In addition to continuous live entertainment and live wildlife demonstrations, more than 140 arts-and-crafts booths offered such items as fine pottery and hand-sewn pot holders.

Richard and Linda Trammell stopped by the festival to find gifts to take back to friends and relatives in Pennsylvania later this week. At Patricia D'Angelo's booth, the couple was delighted by a display of inexpensive handmade "redneck" souvenirs.

"My brother's going to love this," said Linda Trammell, holding up a bird feeder fashioned from a broomstick handle and the rubber end of a toilet plunger.

The event, which is sponsored by the Weeki Wachee Area Club, also featured many area environmental groups, including the Gulf Coast Conservancy, the Hernando Audubon Society, the Hernando Native Plant Society, Hernando Environmental Land Protectors and others.

Fish said he didn't know how Saturday's low turnout would affect the festival's proceeds, which are distributed to local charities.

"We plan the festival very carefully every year, and the one thing we can't do anything about is the weather," he said. "All we can do is hope that we don't get hit again next year."

Logan Neill can be reached at 848-1435 or lneill@sptimes.com.

[Last modified March 4, 2007, 20:43:25]