{"id":45869,"date":"2020-01-24T12:05:49","date_gmt":"2020-01-24T17:05:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=45869"},"modified":"2020-01-24T12:06:05","modified_gmt":"2020-01-24T17:06:05","slug":"lehigh-acres-spring-festival-ends-new-festival-festival-will-replace-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2020\/01\/lehigh-acres-spring-festival-ends-new-festival-festival-will-replace-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Lehigh Acres Spring Festival Ends, New Festival Festival Will Replace It?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The 45-year-old Lehigh Acres Spring Festival will end to make way for a new community festival; Southwest Florida’s Hero Fest. The name change might come with a heavy heart for some long-time residents, but this year’s festival is designed to thank and honor local heroes, including veterans, military personnel, first responders and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Last\nyear we had a patriotic theme during the Spring Festival and it really worked\nout well. That’s why this festival will be dedicated to them and all that they\ndo for us. As a community, we cannot thank these individuals enough, who have\ngiven so much to defend our country, actively fighting wars, and keeping us\nsafe and sound on a daily basis,” said Cheryl Dutka, vice president of\nSouthwest Florida’s Hero Fest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\noriginal Spring Festival started in 1975, as a celebration to welcome spring,\nand to say farewell to all of Lehigh’s seasonal residents who head back north\nfor the summer. Previously, the festival’s success was driven partly by the\nparticipation of local civic organizations and businesses who were involved and\nhosted various contests, competitions and performances throughout the week-long\nevent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According\nto a SWFL Hero Fest press release, the combined decrease of interest and\nattendance pushed the committee into making a the difficult decision to retire\nthe Lehigh Spring Festival and its events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another\nfactor that came into play is the diverseness of Lehigh, which has grown\ntremendously over the past 45 years, boasting more than 100,000 residents.\nLehigh’s demographics have changed greatly as well, now comprised of more\nworking families who come from all cultures, and originate from all around the\nworld.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Since\nwe have a lot of families and many with young children, we thought it would be\na good idea to open earlier, so those with smaller kids could come when the\nrides are less busy. It’s also great for our local businesses who can stop by\nand grab lunch from one of our fresh, food vendors,” Dutka said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two\nadditional changes were made from the original Spring Festival: a new location\nand an earlier date. The SWFL Hero Fest will be held earlier than the original\nSpring Festival, and will run from Thursday, Feb. 6, to Sunday, Feb, 9, at 225\nJoel Blvd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According\nto Dutka, the dates were moved up slightly to keep the festival from competing\nwith the larger Southwest Florida & Lee County Fair, which runs Feb. 27\nthrough March 8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We\nalso needed to change the location for this year’s Hero Festival from its\nnormal Veterans Park to a venue off of Joel Boulevard due to the traffic\ncongestion and construction delays on Homestead Road,” Dutka said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nyear’s festival still will offer entertainment for the entire family with live\nmusic and stage shows, carnival rides, food trucks and food vendors, a beer\ngarden, local arts & craft vendors, a car show, and special presentations\nfor local veterans, military personnel, and first responders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We\nstill have many of our popular food vendors coming out, a new carnival with\nrides from Premier Shows of America, and we will have our crowd favorites back\nincluding Commodore Cutter’s Tent, Nick’s Kid Show, a chili cook-off, a pet\nshow, a barbecue cook-off and great local bands and dance performances,”\nDutka said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All\nproceeds raised from the Hero Festival will go back into the communities where\nit is needed most and local veteran and military organizations, such as the\nAmerican Legion, VFW, Southwest Florida Hero Project and the Southwest Florida\nMilitary Museum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dutka\nsaid that there will also be a special appreciation day scheduled to celebrate\nall the hometown heroes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another\nchange from previous years, is that this year’s festival will not include its\nannual parade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hours\nof operation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thursday\nand Sunday, hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Friday and Saturday, from 11 a.m.\nto midnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four-day\nwrist bans can be purchased for $60. One- day wrist bands are $25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Admission and parking will be free. Website at https:\/\/swflherofest.com\/<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information on SWFL Hero Fest visit SWFLherofest.com<\/a> or email Cheryl Dutka at\u00a0swflherofest@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early\nwrist bands may also be purchased.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 45-year-old Lehigh Acres Spring Festival will end to make way for a new community festival; Southwest Florida’s Hero Fest. The name change might come with a heavy heart for… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":45870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45869"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}