TAYLOR COUNTY, Fla. (WCTV) – More than 15,000 people came together Saturday for the annual Florida Forest Festival in Taylor County.
“It matters because we’re also preserving the heritage of how Taylor County came about through forestry,” Dawn Perez with the said.
This year was particularly special for the festival. Hurricane Helene destroyed the grounds in 2024, so the festival wasn’t possible. However, Perez said they are grateful to be back and to see the community support.
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“We had planned on coming last year, and, unfortunately, with the hurricane and everything, we didn’t get to enjoy this,” Shelley Whitlatch said. She and her husband came from Madison County to attend the festival this year. “My husband came for the car show. I came for the arts and crafts,” she said.
The event included more than 100 arts and craft vendors, food trucks, a car show, and a lumberjack competition. Perez said they also had a fish fry dinner for roughly 3,000 people, calling it the “world’s largest free fish fry.”
Perez said in addition to bringing the community together, the festival significantly boosts the local economy.
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