A discussion of the timing of major county events occurred at the commission meeting on April 26, 2016.
During Public Comment at a recent commission meeting, Jimmy Lodato discussed some of the lighter events from the past few weeks. The Blueberry Festival had an estimated attendance of 40,000 on Saturday but he felt that having two events scheduled for the same time was counterproductive. He suggested scheduling the county fair earlier to take advantage of tourists and winter residents, who tend to leave to return north around Easter. Discussions on social media support having the events staggered due to affordability. He stated that it would be beneficial to drop frivolous lawsuits and bring the city and county together.
Nicholson, Holcomb and Adkins responded to the issue of the combined events. They agreed that separate times would be best, but they are run by different organizations and not answerable to the BOCC. The Hernando County Fair Association is advised by the company that runs the rides when they will be coming to the county, and that is when the fair must be scheduled. Adkins stated he would prefer to have the Blueberry Festival in early May or June so that local growers could be featured and sell their blueberries to the attendees rather than having to pay to ship in blueberries from an outside source.
Chuck Morton, who is a member of several community groups, echoed Mr. Lodato’s statement that coordination of events would be key in maximizing not only tourist dollars but local residents’ attendance, citing the example of SwampFest and Art in the Park as occurring almost simultaneously. He suggested that coordinating through the Tourist Development Council might be appropriate to avoid those issues in the future. Tammy Heon, Tourist Development Manager, responded by stating that anyone planning an event should contact her office which has a master calendar. She also suggested picking a certain date (such as the third Saturday of January for the Brooksville Raid) and keeping it. Upcoming changes to grant funding may include a stipulation that events receiving funding cannot hold their event the same day as another funded event.