Manatee fest goes from fundraiser to county identity

Two decades ago, the Crystal River Chamber of Commerce needed to raise more money and looked to its lumbering winter residents. Now the Florida Manatee Festival has become a symbol for the county.

[Times files: 1996] Barbara Greenwood of Spring Hill browses at a floral booth at the manatee festival, which has evolved over the years and now focuses on arts, crafts and a seafood event.

By BARBARA BEHRENDT

© St. Petersburg Times, published January 12, 2001

CRYSTAL RIVER -- Crystal River Chamber of Commerce officials had been talking about the need for their own building and other improvements, but that kind of work required money.

[Times files: 1998] A clay sculpture called Career Woman hangs above visitors to artist Lorri Shute's booth at the festival at the Plantation Inn in Crystal River.

They needed a fundraiser.

Charles Alexander, a member of the chamber and a real estate salesman, was familiar with the Vidalia Onion Festival in Georgia and the fact that the festival was a good moneymaker, drawing thousands of people into the Vidalia community.

Crystal River needed to find its onion.

The chamber didn't have to look far to find one. Crystal River had the largest group of endangered manatees wintering in a natural spring system on Florida's west coast. The manatee became Crystal River's onion and it has been ever since.

The first Florida Manatee Festival at Crystal River took place in 1984 and included a concert by the Allman Brothers band and the dedication of the manatee welcome sign still in place at Crystal River's southern boundary.

Alexander, who coordinated the event for the first couple of years, said recently that he thinks the festival in its many incarnations has done what it intended to do.

"I guess it's pretty darn big now," he said. "And it did make money, at least all but a couple of years."

Over the years, the festival has changed dramatically. In the early years, it took place in the fall and included such events as wine and cheese parties, bowling tournaments, beauty pageants and road races. For several years, the festival was affiliated with concerts, including one by the Charlie Daniels Band in 1985 that lost the chamber money.

But, Alexander recalled, C.L. Calloway of the Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative came up with the idea of selling plaques to raise money to make up the debt.

Also in 1985, the chamber's festival efforts got an extra push from some national press when weather announcer Willard Scott mentioned the event on NBC's Today Show. The mention came after the chamber had sent a stack of manatee paraphernalia to Scott encouraging him to plug the festival.

"I don't know if anybody's going to jump on an airplane and come to our manatee festival, but it certainly helps to publicize our area," Alexander was quoted as saying at the time.

As the event evolved, it became focused on two main kinds of activities -- fine arts and crafts and the seafood festival.

Most years, the events were held at the Plantation Inn property at U.S. 19 and Fort Island Gulf Trail. But other events were parceled out over the years to venues ranging from the now-defunct Crystal River Yacht Club to the Crystal River Airport.

Then, over several years, various activities moved to the Crystal River Mall, generating a variety of issues for the organizers including questions about spreading out the activities in too many places.

In 1999, the festival took place in mid February at Rock Crusher Canyon, but earned criticism from participants because of problems with organization and parking. With the merger of the Crystal River and Citrus County chambers, some involved in the event saw the problems as simple growing pains thatcould be worked out in a future festival.

There was no manatee festival in 2000. Instead, organizers focused on a 2001 festival in downtown Crystal River.

Incoming Crystal River Mayor Ron Kitchen was chairman of the festival committee in the early 1990s and he remembers the experience as being time-consuming and complex, but very satisfying. He said he remembered feeling a sense of real accomplishment when another chamber official greeted him by saying: "Congratulations, Ron. The city is in gridlock."

Now with the festival moving into downtown Crystal River and onto City Hall property, Kitchen said he is excited about the close relationship the city and the chamber have developed over the festival.

"I just think this has been the typical success story," Kitchen said. "I like the idea of having it downtown. It will be interesting to see how to handle the logistics of it."

He said staging the festival in downtown Crystal River was almost like starting over and he said he hoped the festival could stay put in future years. People look for that kind of consistency, Kitchen said.

"I think some people will be seeing the downtown area of Crystal River for the first time even if they've been to Crystal River before," he said.

Mary Craven, who heads up tourism development for Citrus County, says that for years the manatee wasn't really part of the festival. "Now, the new changes mean so much to the festival. They make it a lot more meaningful."

Kitchen also said he was glad to see the festival putting more of an emphasis on manatee education than it has in the past.

A lack of information on manatees has earned the festival criticism almost from the very beginning. Groups wanting to spread the word about the endangered manatees, including the Save the Manatee Club and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the lead agency on manatee protection, found themselves banned from some of the festivals.

They were known to talk about issues that some chamber officials over the years saw as detrimental to businesses, mainly dive shops, which earn their living primarily from people who come to see manatees.

But this year's festival includes educational agencies and dive shops offering manatee tours. While he is not involved in organizing this year's festival, Kitchen said that teamwork needs to be there.

"We all live here. We all had the same agenda, only before we were talking at each other rather than talking to each other. Now everyone is seeing how we can cooperate," Kitchen said. "That way, there's a good educational aspect, it's good for the chamber, it's good for showcasing the city. It's a win-win for everyone."

Mary Craven, who heads up tourism development for Citrus County, agrees.

"It used to be just a fundraiser for the chamber," she said. "For years they had the Manatee Festival, but they were not really putting the manatee into it. Now, the new changes mean so much to the festival. They make it a lot more meaningful."

So 16 years later, does Alexander think that the festival has done what it intended to do?

"Hell, yeah," he said. "We were doing so much else then that we didn't have the time to promote ourselves, but this did the trick.

"I'm proud of what they've done with it," he said. "Everyone has benefited."

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