WINTER PARK, Fla. – The 64th annual Winter Park Art Festival has returned for another year.
For many Central Florida locals, it’s a tradition they return to year after year.
“I’ve been coming since high school, so ‘75,” Winter Park resident Robert Stout said.
Another resident, Seema Reddy, came out to the festival with her friends on Friday.
[TRENDING: Become a News 6 Insider]
“It’s awesome,” Reddy said. “I look forward to it every year. I’ve gone for many years and it’s awesome to kind of, even if you’re not going to buy anything, just kind of look around and see all the creative things people are doing.”
Organizers said the massive festival takes a lot of planning to bring in artists from all over the country.
“It’s a yearlong planning effort,” Winter Park Art Festival Committee co-President Greg Witherspoon said. “I mean as soon as the tents leave for this wonderful event, we’ll start planning for next year.”
People come for more than the art. They come for the food and to many a few memories along the way.
[Click here to sign up for the Setting The Stage arts & entertainment newsletter | See more Setting the Stage stories here]
“Any time that we got to spend some good time together whenever it was in town, he said we got to go to the art festival, check out all the different booths and meet for breakfast,” Forrest Stout said.
Despite the weekend’s rainy forecast, organizers said they’re ready to go—rain or shine.
“Well, it’s Florida so you know it’s hard to tell,” Winter Park Arts Festival Committee co-President Jennifer Clark said. “The weather is always fluctuating. Our artists tell us they deal with this all the time. So we don’t cancel anything. We just keep going and do the best that we can.”
Organizers anticipate 300,000 people will descend onto Park Avenue this weekend.
The festival kicked off on Friday and will run through Sunday. Witherspoon also said the event will feature more than 30 new artists this year. For more information on what to expect, click here.
You can listen to every episode of Florida’s Fourth Estate in the media player below: