- November 27, 2024
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Palm Coast will host its first International Food & Wine Festival June 2 and June 3, at Central Park in Town Center.
Palm Coast will host its first International Food & Wine Festival Saturday, June 2, and Sunday, June 3, at Central Park in Town Center, featuring more than 20 different cultural groups.
On entering the park, guests will receive a passport to be stamped at each country visited. With nationalities ranging from Hispanic and German to Chinese, Portuguese, Caribbean, Polish and African American, the event will feature booths signifying countries from across the globe. Region-specific beer and wine samples will be available, as well as a kids’ bounce house. A fireworks display is planned for dusk June 2, contingent on the burn ban.
“We’ve been talking about doing this forever,” said Marsha Lidskin, community relations coordinator. “It’s just been an evolving discussion for several years … until we knew the community could support it.”
To Lidskin, who has worked on organizing the festival with Palm Coast Events Coordinator Lisa Gardner, Palm Coast and an international festival are two things that seem to go hand and hand.
“It’s a long time coming,” she said. “If you look at all the groups that are here … this belongs in Palm Coast. It’s natural. Where has it been all of this time?”
Lidskin calls the festival a “celebration of Palm Coast and who we are as a community.” But she also notes that it should help drive business to local companies.
“Everything that we’re all doing here will have an economic impact,” she said. “Obviously we’re hoping that the businesses that we have out there will make some money, (but) the angle here is the food and the fun.”
Celebrating cultural diversity remains the day’s top concern.
“This is an extremely diverse, culturally oriented city,” Lidskin said. “Everybody here is passionate about their roots, and you can tell by the hundreds of groups there are (in town).”
Admission is $3 for adults and free to children under 12. The June 2 event runs from noon to 9 p.m.; June 3 runs from noon to 5 p.m.
Sponsors include WNZF Radio, Palm Coast Ford, Bright House Networks, Palm Coast Holdings, the Daytona Beach News-Journal/Tribune and the Palm Coast Observer.
For more, visit www.discoverpalmcoast.com or call 986-2341.
EVENTS SCHEDULE
SATURDAY
Noon to 1 p.m. Palm Coast Pipe & Drum will march and play.
1-1:15 p.m. Jax 4 Couples will perform Columbian dance.
1:15-1:30 p.m. Pavlina Osta will play the steel drums.
1:30-1:45 p.m. AME Church choir will sing African American spiritual songs.
1:45-2 p.m. Jukido Academy will hold a ju-jitsu demonstration.
2-2:15 p.m. Jax 4 Couples will perform Colombian dance.
2:15-2:30 p.m. Hanalei Polynesian Dancers will perform a colorful South Pacific dance show.
2:30-3 p.m. Cesar Romero will play Latin music and songs.
3-3:15 p.m. Jax 4 Couples will perform Colombian dance.
3:15-5 p.m. Cesar Romero will play Latin music and songs.
5-5:30 p.m. 20 dancers and a band will perform Portuguese traditional folk dance.
5:30-6 p.m. Philippine Bamboo Dance will perform a costumed family dance.
6-9 p.m. The Freestyle Band will play Calypso-Reggae music.
SUNDAY
Noon to 1 p.m. Palm Coast Pipe & Drum will march 20 bagpipers through the park.
1-1:30 p.m. Kevon ReMonte will play love songs of the world.
1:30-2 p.m. Jukido Academy will hold a ju-jitsu demonstration.
2-2:30 p.m. Hanalei Polynesian Dancers will hula dance.
3-5 p.m. Cesar Romero and Salsa Dancing will perform Latin favorites.
SAIL AWAY
Gerling Travel has donated a four-night Bahamian cruise getaway, to be raffled away in the days following the Palm Coast International Food & Wine Festival.
Launching from either Jacksonville or Port Canaveral, the cruise can be won by obtaining an event passport and turning it in after obtaining stamps from every country booth set up at Central Park in Town Center.
For more, call 439-6900.
