Florida Strawberry Festival Office — Attraction in Plant City

We had a wonderful time today! It was the 3rd time that I've been to the festival, but surprisingly my husband's first time. I was shocked to hear that because he was raised in Tampa. So yeah, it was his day off from work and we just had to go together.

It took us a while to find it. We took Highway 60 to Highway 39 (James L. Redman Pkwy) to get to Alexander St. From there, we made a left turn on Reynolds St. I seem to remember coming in from a different route many years ago, and bypassing all those local businesses trying to flag you down to park in their lots for higher prices. Just keep in mind that the $5 Red & Blue festival ground parking is way past all of that. You'll need to go past the main pedestrian crosswalks to get to it. It was a breeze once we got there. We entered at Gate 13 (near the Midway) from the Red Lot. We already had pre-purchased our tickets. It's $2 off regular admission prices when you buy them at a participating Publix Supermarket. They also sell discounted St. Clement "Make Your Own" Strawberry Shortcake tickets as well. Definitely purchase them ahead of time. You're only saving 50¢, but it also allows you to go to the front of the line instead of waiting to pay to get your shortcake.

The festival was full of all kinds of various treats. Most of them are fried, but I did see some steak and veggies cooking that smelled delicious. The turkey legs looked great as well. They had gyros and the infamous donut burger. Alessi's Bakery is also set up at one of the exhibit halls as well. There are lots of food options. We decided to go straight to the Parke Building to make our strawberry shortcake. It was around 10:30 am on a weekday and there was already a large crowd. The shortcake is good. They whip their own topping. You can put as much or as little of the strawberries and whipped topping as you'd like. You get a choice of a biscuit or a shortcake base. The bases are not homemade, so keep that in mind. I've had way better shortcake at roadside stands in Plant City and in Dover. It's still good and affordable. The profit goes to the church. It's a good cause.

The highlight of the visit was checking out the various vendors, exhibits, and crafts. We purchased the strawberry poppy seed dressing, chow chow relish, and jalapeno bacon jam at Sweet Treats Cannery (3 for $20). We tried a Peachey's Amish donut for the first time. It was hot, fresh, and truly amazing. It was a great morning that started out being somewhat cool and ended up being hot by noon time. It's Florida!! You may even have a Florida Man (or Woman) sighting. I say that with a lot of love for my home state (and the people too). The Florida Strawberry Festival in Plant City is definitely an event to be visited at least once during strawberry...

Always look forward to this annual event, although we did miss last year due to other obligations.

I read so many other reviews that try to compare the Strawberry Festival to the State Fair and other events. So un"fair" to use a pun.

The Strawberry Festival should be what is it...a celebration of one of the areas most prized crops that is known the world over.

Please take note of the migrant workers hunched over in the fields in the days lading up this event, and for may days after. Then look around the festival at all the berry offerings that got there starting with those workers.

You sure as heck don't see our younger generations out there doing all that physical work do ya?

So, back to the festival. Yes, there's Strawberry food offerings, and a lot of them. Several strawberry shortcake choices from Alessi, Parkdale, and some churches. There's Strawberry cookies, bread, chocolate covered ones, strawberry cobbler, dipped fudge ones, a strawberry milkshake from Brandon Farms is a must, a berry brisket taco from Johnson's/Fred's is also a must (yes a brisket taco with a strawberry pico is the bomb!

This year, we discovered Sally Ann's Fried Pies. The Strawberry Cream Fry Pie will blow your mind!

Yes, there are the typical festival/fair culinary delights from corn dogs to bloomin' onions, and deep friend everythings, if that's your choice.

Then there's this. Look at the headlining entertainment they offer. This isn't your typical little festival. These are national acts and they always keep a wide variety of musical style on the agenda.

We're not midway people, but what we have seen looks typical and fits the need for those that participate, and with a separate kiddie midway, that's a nice touch in my opinion.

Stop whining about the parking. Did ya notice that this is not a large event area and the parking choices are pretty limited for being right at the edge of residential properties?

I have no problem dropping a 10 to a local church or business to park within 1/4 mile of any event. There are plenty of options, just find one and park already.

Again, we love this event and always look forward to it. Just please don't compare it to the State Fair. ...

We had a lot of fun with the rides and the food was amazing, however, I had a huge issue with LUCAS and my tickets. The machine to buy wristbands bands randomly stopped taking my cash so I asked Lucas for help, he tried my credit card but the machine wasn’t working, he said he couldn’t take that order and transfer it anywhere else that I would have to pay on the other side of the park, I asked him to refund the cash and charge the whole thing to my card on a different machine. Lucas snatched my ticket out of my hand and starts bopping his head back and forth going off and storms towards the back of the machines. I asked another employee for the manager, she helped and proceeded to tell me she was giving me a huge discount on the wristbands for the price she was giving me them at, however, she took my money for the upgraded version and gave me the regular wrist bands. 4x I had to go back to her and have them fixed not only for the upgrade but because she didn’t activate them properly, than the kids needed necklaces with a checkered flag or some of the rides operators weren’t letting us go through the fast lane.

Besides that’s everyone was really nice, we had a lot of fun, it’s very big and crowded, so it’s not for people who can’t walk, there’s no room for a wheelchair when everyone has strollers and wheelbarrows full of stuff for there kids, it would be smart not to allow them to bring in food or drinks so they have to buy more from the vendors, (kid or not unless it’s formula, like disney or any of the big parks do)

We got lost trying to find where we parked 😅🤣 it was a little crazy but all in all we won’t be going back, the kids had fun but I spent over $800 for 5 people to enter (separate charge) and 3...