The Celebration of Fellsmere Frog Leg Festival

Aayush Kumar Shrivastava
12 Min Read

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Fellsmere Frog Leg Festival is considered one of the most famous occasions for frog leg lovers. It is a 4-day event that occurs on the 3rd week of January. The event takes place from Thursday to Sunday.

It is a wonderful way to spend a single or all 4 days of a weekend in the winter of January. The event takes place at 22 South Orange St, Fellsmere, Florida. It is a 3-hour ride to North from Miami to Florida and a 1-hour drive from Orlando. Along with that, the location is very close to Vero Beach.

The festival’s principal attractions are the frog legs and the gator tail dinners. But along with that, it gives you a full carnival experience. You will also get to enjoy music, various adventurous rides, and some delicious carnival food.

There are over 100 hometown crafters and vendors selling amazing articles.

The WORLD

Awards

Fellsmere Frog Leg Festival holds 2 Guinness Book World Records

One is the World’s Largest Frog Leg Festival, and the second for selling the largest number of frog legs in a single day.

In 2019, it was also included in the Top Twenty Events of Southeast Tourism Society, not only for its uniqueness but also for the financial help it is providing to the society.

History

The City of Fellsmere recreation committee experienced a lack of funds to fulfill the children’s recreational needs. This festival’s tradition started in 1990 by Fran Adam and other Fellsmere residents, intending to raise funds for the Recreational Department of Florida.

The first year was full of panic because of the visitors’ unexpected attendance, and they have to knock on doors to feed the frog leg craving of visitors because the 400lbs of frog legs they arranged got sold out on the very first night.

Since the beginning of the Fellsmere frog leg festival in 1990, it has raised funds exceeding $600,000.

Even the building where the festival takes place is originally a school building, and the event was an effort to save this building from vanishing.

The organizers never expected that this event would get such a response and frog legs served would be so successful. Even initially, they used to cook in the open air, but they designed an efficiently working kitchen after experiencing the crowds.

And this was the lifesaver of the Old School Building, which is now not only the kitchen for the Fellsmere frog leg festival but also a place for the City Administrative Office, Community Centre, and the Boys & Girls Club.

Starting with only 400 dinners, Fellsmere frog leg festival in recent years is entertaining over 80,000 visitors and serving about 7,000 pounds of frog legs, 2,000 pounds of gator tails every year.

FrogLeg Festival Fellsmere Florida 2011

They have a big team of volunteers that play a vital role in making this event a fluently going festivalnand they always welcome new volunteers to join the team.

Entry

There are no entry or parking fees to attend the event. There is on-site parking available just surrounding the festival ground. Along with that, Fellsmere frog leg festival also offers the facility of off-site parking at 100 Mesa Park BLVD.

With a free bus service between the festival ground and off-site parking, every 10 minutes you will only have to pay for the food and the items you purchase, and the rides you enjoy.

The festival’s attendance increases from Thursday and reaches its maximum on Saturday, with a decline on Sunday. The people who are likely to shop patiently and are interested in buying some inventory products from the vendors visit the festival on Thursday and Friday as till Sunday these items might get sold out.

The organizers have no problem with you bringing your dogs as long as they are leashed.
You can also enjoy some excellent beer and camel rides. And they also have a Petting zoo, where you can see live alligators and some more animals.

Frog Legs

Daddy Makes Me Eat FROG LEGS!

This event’s center of attraction, the frog legs, are what makes this event unique. Many people attend this event only to know how frog legs taste.

The French generally eat frogs, but the Fellsmere frog leg festival proves they can make them better. Frog legs are also rich in protein and low in fat.

According to many visitors, the texture of a frog is a combination of chicken and fish. Some people like it and some people don’t.

The major dishes of this festival include frog pops, gator pops of $3 each. It may have one leg of a frog or one piece of shower gator. They also offer Pounders such as a pound of the gator tail and cap pound frog-leg for $15 each.

You can choose among Frog Leg Dinner, which has frog legs, hush puppies, coleslaw, and grits for $14, Gator-Tail Dinner, which includes gator tail, coleslaw, hush puppies, and grits for $15, or Combo, where you can get a small amount of everything.

In the Combo, you will get gator tail, hush puppies, coleslaw, grits, and of course, the frog legs for $15. They have enough space for you to enjoy your meal comfortably. Gator tails are mostly famous in Florida and Louisiana.

The species of frog they use are the Cane Toad, which is also known as Bufo. There is a beverage truck where you can enjoy various flavors of Beer.

And if you like, they also have a spot where you can kiss the frogs, and they say a frog may turn into a prince or princess. But that has not happened yet.

But one thing also to be known that even if you like frog legs or not, the Fellsmere frog leg festival has a lot more to offer. There are many booths with various items to buy, sold by the crafters of the town.

Vendors

2019-Fellsmere Frog Leg Festival

You can buy Raw Honey in natural, or various flavors sold by Indian River B Company. There are also Tattoo artists, Bonzi trees sellers, Recycled Beer Bottle articles, wood crafted, carving the wood into various birds, animals, and other interesting shapes.

There is a Toy Store that has a lot of stuff for kids. You don’t even need to carry a lot of cash to enjoy this festival; they accept digital payment through cards, along with the service of ATM.

The visitors can also watch the Surrounded Cornmill at the Fellsmere frog leg festival, a 1923 machine that gets gasoline power. They also have a Morse City engine run by petrol or diesel, build in 1916.

These machines are still in use. People get amazed by watching the technology people used to have in those times.

Carnival Food

Frog Leg Food Festival: Send Foodz w/ Timothy DeLaGhetto & David So

You will have a wonderful carnival experience at the Fellsmere frog leg festival. They offer various mouth-watering carnival food, including hotdogs, burgers, funnel cakes, pizza, gyros, kabobs, each costing between $4 – $10.

Turkey legs, and Cheddar Nuggets with blooming onion are also very much in demand. Deep-fried Oreo is many people’s favorite.

Rides

Amusement Park gets its life in the evening, with attractive lighting all around the festival ground. It offers a wide variety of rides for adventure lovers, and they have the power to test your bravery. There are rides like Zero Gravity, Cliff Hanger, Sky Flyer, Berry Go Round, Magic Carpet, Bull Riding, Machine Gun, Tornado ride.

Haunted Mansion is the one that puts visitor’s courage on a test. As the name suggests, Magic Maze is the one you would have to find your way out among confusing paths.

You can also have lots of fun at the ‘Bopping Heads R Us’ booth, where your head will be displayed popping over some cool music on an animated body.

They have a ticket system to enjoy Carnival food and rides. One Ticket worth $1.25 and bundle tickets containing 18 tickets cost $20.

By purchasing an armband, you can enjoy as many rides as you want. But its prices depend on the day. Like, on Thursday and Sunday, when the festival is less crowded, it is about $20, and on Friday and Saturday, on the most crowded days, its price is about $25.

Entertainment

Callin

There are various games organized for entertainment purposes where visitors can win some exciting prizes, but you would have to pay in cash for participating. Like in a recent year, they organized a competition named ‘Callin Hogs’ in which the participants have to produce weird voices, and the winner gets some prize.

Even the event also offers a good musical experience, with various talented artists performing to entertain the visitors.

So the Fellsmere frog leg festival is a must-attend event if you are near Florida. It is a perfect way to have fun in the cool winter of January. This event has something for each member of your family. You will get to have frog legs, gator tails, some exciting items to buy.

Along with that, the adventurous rides to get amused and the carnival food to satisfy your deep-fried food craving makes it worth a visit. Even the fund generated during the Fellsmere frog leg festival is used for the good cause of fulfilling the recreational needs of children.

So, the world’s largest frog leg festival at Fellsmere, Florida is definitely worth giving a shot. Do write in the comments what you feel about this fest.

Last Updated on by NamitaSoren

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