| Cedar Key is a Tiny Town with a Big Heart for Festivals |
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| April 04, 2008 |
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Cedar Key is a tiny town with a big heart for festivals.
Cedar Key is on a small island facing the Gulf of Mexico. It is 51 miles west of Gainesville. Getting there means going down a long straight road called SR 24. The town's population is less than 1,000. Next weekend that number will rise dramatically.
The 44th annual spring arts festival called Old Florida Celebration of the Arts happens Saturday, April 12 and Sunday, April 13. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. It is free and open to the public.
The Cedar Key Chamber of Commerce sponsors this festival that will draw 120 artists and many visitors. Fine arts and crafts booths -including paintings, sculptures, jewelry, ceramics, textiles and photography - line both sides of historic Second Street. There are $10,000 in booth awards and $9,500 in purchase prizes. School, church and civic groups will serve seafood and other fare in City Park.
City Park sits right on the waterfront and has a great playground. This is where the live music will play during the festival - musical accompaniment for that good local seafood being served.
Local artist Bill Roberts had his artwork showing a fishing scene and dock selected for the commemorative poster and T-shirts.
While fishing, both recreational and commercial, still thrives here, clams are making a bid to be an even bigger draw. Farm raised clams makes Cedar Key the number-one producer of clams in Florida. See how they do it by taking a tour at Southern Cross Sea Farms, Inc. on SR 24. It is one of the largest hard shell clam farms in America. I'd never seen a baby clam before. My, they are small! Makes a pebble look big.
For history buffs, check out the Cedar Key Historical Museum ($1 donation) located at the intersection of SR 24 and historic Second Street. Hours are 1-4 Sunday through Friday and 11-5 on Saturday.
This is also the place to purchase a brochure ($4) for a do-it-yourself historical walking tour. Every historical building has a notation and a small bit of history. Across the street is a most unusual place called Curmudgeon that turns out to be a bookstore with lots of Florida books, high speed Internet access, gifts, games, and a resident curmudgeon.
There's more history at Cedar Key Museum State Park, located in town at 12231 SW 166th Court. In addition to exhibits about the town's past, you can tour the St. Clair Whitman house, restored to the 1920's era. The museum is closed Tuesday and Wednesday, open Thursday through Monday.
Check out the new addition to the local art scene at the sculpture garden on Second Street for the Cedar Key Arts Center. A large mosaic sculpture shows an angler hooking a fish while a low wall has sea creatures done in mosaics. The new garden was dedicated April 5. Visit the Arts Center Gallery upstairs and the Cedar Keyhole Artists Coop on the first floor. Local artists capture the sunny atmosphere and deep connections with marine life in watercolors, oils, photographs and ceramics.
For birders, this is heaven. Protected lands are all around Cedar Key including the Lower Suwannee and Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuge, the Waccasassa Bay State Preserve and Cedar Key Scrub State Preserve. It is easy to get out on the water. A number of tour boats offer bird tours around the different keys, island visits, and sunset rides. One example is Captain Doug's Tidewater Tours
Before long, you'll be looking around at the B&Bs and the cabin rentals, because you'll want to come back. Check the Chamber Web site for upcoming events - here are two - the Nature Coast Birding & Wildlife Experience on Oct. 3-5, 2008, A Celebration of Natural Diversity and the 39th Annual Seafood Festival on October 18-19, 2008.
Just a heads up before you go - several places I visited in Cedar Key, including restaurants and also some of the boat tours, take cash and personal checks only, no credit cards. |
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| A new sculpture garden at the Cedar Key Arts Center features a ceramic fisherman catching a fish and a wall of mosaic sealife |
| Credit: Lucy Beebe Tobias, VISIT FLORIDA Authentic Florida Expert |
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