Everglades Seafood Festival — Local services in Everglades City

Wow, I'm kind of surprised about the number of people complaining about the "fried' seafood. I'm one of the vendors and we offer both fried and grilled shrimp. FYI, 90% of what we sold was fried. Not because we forced it on people, that's just what they ordered. We sold conch fritters, conch salad and cracked conch. Since conch is not available here, we were allowed to sell it. The show is very strict on not allowing foreign fish/shrimp etc and a couple of years ago, they literally threw a vendor out for not following their rules. Lets face it, seafood, especially local seafood is not cheap. Most of the vendors have to pay for hotels. The people that put this show on have tremendous overhead with police, fire, insurance, paying for the entertainment, etc. Some of you are complaining about $10 entry fee.. but you'll pay $16 to watch a 2 hr movie and pay $7 for popcorn. They allow other types of food vendors as some people don't like seafood which makes complete sense. Do any of you complain about the cost of food at the airport? Cmon people, relax, it's a...

We went to this event to have a Great time and Fantastic food. We did, until we were walking around checking out the many vendors. I was approached by a woman stating that I didn't have a bracelet on and either pay $5.00 or leave. Then 2 other women joined in and began yelling at me at the top of their lungs. I had no idea what was going on about this so called "Donation". Then 2 xtra large men came and were acting like bouncers. I felt threatned and I reluctantly gave the $5.00. It's very obvious that they are avoiding paying the taxes on the so called "Donations". In their website they stated that between 50 and 70 thousand people attend the festival over the 3 days. So they collected between $250,000.00 and $350,000.00. That's not including the parking fee's and the Vendor fee's. Taxes on this would really help in other area's. Like maybe in the Hurricane Desaster area's. Being told that I must pay to enter or leave a free event was and is illegal. It should be up to the individual to DONATE any amount they feel that is...

We parked in a restaurant lot at $10 per motorcycle. We walked right up to the festival and walked around with our friends. We got tickets for beer, which was $20.00 for 3 beers. The food is bad and overpriced. As we were walking out, a lady came up to us asking us to pay an entrance fee which was supposed to be a donation at $5.00 per person. This was never the case in the past years. I asked why we have to pay when we had already paid for parking, overpriced food and drinks. She said this had changed and now a cover charge. I pointed out that many people did not have a band. She said they were locals. I asked how do you know I am not a local..she asked me for ID.and if I didn't pay, the fire marshall and police would arrest me. Hundreds of people without a band, and we got picked on. I guess bikers aren't locals. We have been coming for years. We will never be back. There is NO entrance booth!!!!! If I had been arrested, I would sue someone. Lots of people without a band that look...