MOUNT DORA, Fla. – Mount Dora has added yet another festival to its already impressive lineup of festivals.
The city is hosting its inaugural Corn Festival at Elizabeth Evans Park. Mount Dora Mayor, Crissy Stile, said there’s a reason why the city decided to host the corn festival.
“Years ago, the Zellwood Corn Festival kind of stopped happening and so we have the awesome Long & Scott Farms down in Zellwood who has all of this fantastic corn and so it was our city staff’s idea, our event coordinator’s idea to put on a corn festival,” Stile said.
The event began on Friday with hundreds of people turning out. Stile said they are expecting an even bigger turnout on Saturday.
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“We had over 300 attendees, which is fantastic for our first corn festival,” Stile said. “Today [Saturday] starts at 3 p.m. and goes until 9 p.m. We’ll put the fireworks at 9 p.m. and we’re expecting a huge crowd today.”
Stile said the festival comes at the perfect time as the city is beginning to enter its slow season.
“So, we’ve just entered our slow season in Mount Dora,” Stile said. “This is a perfect festival to kind of keep things going, wake things up until our next great festival.”
And while there is plenty of food and other activities at this weekend’s festival, Stile said the event impacts the overall local economy including restaurants and bars.
“The first couple that I ran into yesterday, they just live in Orlando, and they had never been to Mount Dora before and so I said make sure you go to the Corn Festival, and they said that’s why we came,” Stile said. “I mean they stayed last night to come to the corn festival, our very first one, and they’ve never been to Mount Dora and they live in Orlando. This is huge for our downtown merchants who are here all year long. Even the restaurants, even though we’ve got food and of course corn down here — it’s still going to benefit the bars and restaurants that we have and certainly our retail shops as well.”
Saturday’s events will run from 3 p.m. - 9 p.m. Some festival activities include the crowning of the Corn King and Queen, a petting zoo, cornhole, a corn-on-the-cob eating contest, a cornbread contest, and performances from Shelby Darrall, Will Jones, and Mark Wills.
The evening will end with fireworks at 9 p.m. Tickets for adults are $18, kids ages 4-9 are $9 and kids under 3 are free. Blankets and chairs are encouraged.
To purchase a ticket, click here.
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