Florida's Citrus Festival - Lyndsey Venrick

The Citrus Festival was an annual tradition in Winter Haven until about 15 years ago. Now a new group is trying to get a new tradition started with Florida's Citrus Festival, happening Saturday at several downtown Winter Haven parks. Gordon Byrd speaks with Lyndsey Venrick about the festival. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gordon Bird here Beyond the News. For years, one of
the big events of the year in Polk County was
the annual Citrus Festival in winter Haven. It was held
at a facility some of you might have heard of
called the Orange Dome near the Chaina Lake Stadium. Well,
the Orange Dome is gone and the Chaina Lake Stadium
site has been transformed, but a new Citrus Festival is

(00:21):
starting up in winter Haven. The first Florida's Citrus Festival
is set for January thirty first. Lindsay Venrick is the
event director for the new Florida's Citrus Festival and joins
us now on Beyond the News. Lindsay, welcome, Hi, thank
you so much for having me. Well. Now, first of all,
the previous Citrus Festival had a lot of history, finally

(00:44):
wrapped up around two thousand and eight, So this is
kind of referring back to, of course, the incredible Polk
County history as far as Citrus goes, and that was
really one of the engines that shaped Polk County. And
one of the things I think you're trying to do
is to try to re establish that connection with Citrus

(01:07):
and its historical links to Winterhaven and the surrounding areas.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Yes, that is exactly what we're doing. Polk County was
born of the citrus industry, and actually we are still
the leading producer of citrus in the state of Florida.
I know a lot of people may not realize that
as they drive around, you know, past the publixes in
walmarts and housing divisions, but a little bit further beyond
that is still hundreds of acres of Groveland. Citrus still

(01:35):
plays a key role in Polk County, and we want
to educate Polk County about that and let people come
meet the people still growing citrus in this area.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
And that is one of the interesting things because obviously
you've got a lot more people to make aware of
that because Polk County has seen incredible growth. It is
one of the fastest growing counties in the nation and
metropolitan areas, so you have a lot of new people
in the area and they may not be aware of
all that history and all of that farming that still

(02:06):
goes on.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Exactly. I know, people really don't see beyond their commute
to work, but there is so much citrus around us.
This might be a little bit too informational. But you know,
we used to have so much citrus and unfortunately some
stuff came in called greening, and it wiped out all
the crops and Pulk County really took a step back
from citrus. But thanks to science and developed mint and agriculture,

(02:29):
they have come up with solutions and citrus is coming
back and strong. There have been new groves opening up
just this year with all kinds of unique citrus crops
and it's just such an important part of Polk County.
It's our agricultural backbone, and we just we got to
celebrate it. It's awesome and delicious and we should celebrate it.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Great information there and in fact, this is going to
be taking place on the thirty first, and it's going
to be taking place in a little bit of a
different location in downtown Winterhaven. And if people haven't been
to downtown Winterhaven in a while, there's been a lot
of energy going on and put into the downtown there
with businesses and parking garage and the library and the

(03:11):
central park space. So tell us about what's going to
be going on and where people can find the new
Florida's Citrus Festival.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
Sure, so the new event is going to of course
be a showcase of all of our citrus. We have
numerous growths coming to present to educate people on what
they grow, give samples, really just kind of teach about agriculture.
We'll have a vendor market with over sixty makers, artists, bakers,
things like that, and they will all have citrus specialty items.

(03:44):
We've got a dozen food trucks coming again with citrus specialties,
so you can try delicious citrus themed foods all day.
We will have a kid zone with inflatables and obstacle courses.
We've got a Touch a Tractor exhibit where you can
come see some of the agricultural equipment being used today,
like tractors, four wheelers, things like that. We've got a
free photo booth. We've got a blue ribbon art show

(04:07):
similar to what you might find at the Florida State Fair.
We've got live music all day. We have a beer
and mimosa tent where you can come sample some citrus
beers and have some mimosas where you can choose which
juice goes with your bubbles instead of choosing which bubbles
go with your juice. We've got all of that and more.
Happening from eleven am to eight pm on January thirty first.

(04:30):
It's in Central Park, and there's two parks right next
to Central Park, and so we're going to be taking
over all three of those parks right in the heart
of downtown winter Haven. If you've ever seen the park
with the fountain in it, that's Central Park. That's where
you'll want ahead on January thirty first. And there is
plenty of free parking in downtown winter Haven. There is
a parking garage of block away, a giant lot next

(04:51):
to that, a ton of street parking and other large
lots and it's all free in downtown winter.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
Haven and all good to know. When I imagine they'll
have a street or two blocked off in that area
set aside to allow for pedestrian traffic to get by easily.
I know they have a lot of events. I know
they have the monthly events there in that area, so
it's not that much of a stretch for them, but

(05:16):
maybe a little bit of a step up for this one.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
Yes, this is a major event. You won't be able
to miss it if you're driving by.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
All right, that's the Florida's Citrus Festival and that's being
presented in partnership with Visit Central Florida. It's eleven am
to eight pm. Samuel. It's eleven am to eight pm Saturday,
January thirty, first in downtown winter Haven. Lindsey Benrick, event director,
thank you very much for joining us on beyond the News.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
Thank you for having me