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Spring Festival will draw thousands

By Staff | Mar 11, 2009

Jeff Bates to star in opening weekend concert at Spring Festival

Within 10 days from now, Lehigh Acres will become the festival town of Southwest Florida with the start of the annual Lehigh Acres Spring Festival. Thousands of people from the area are expected to attend the Festival and parade.

Ernie Hartman, president of the Festival, said the celebration begins March 20, a Friday night, and continues until March 28, some nine nights of festival magic. It ends with a gala parade and a whole day of events at Veterans Park.

It’s the 35th annual Festival and Hartman said that it has never rained on Parade Day, so he said Lehigh residents need to keep their fingers crossed.

County music singer Jeff Bates from Nashville will perform in concert on the first Saturday night of the pageant, which is March 21. He is being brought here with the help of Gator Country 101.9.

A native of Mississippi, Bates first signed with RCA Records in 2002 and recorded two albums. He now records for the Black River Music Group and has released his first album a few months ago. Bates writes his own music from the experiences he has experienced in his life. He sings about his adoption, a meth addiction he once had and jail time included, according to his website, www.jeffbates.net.

The concert is free but the Festival is asking for a $3 donation per car load to split with the Lehigh Acres Soccer League which will be handling parking.

Hartman said there will be bleachers and chairs set up in front the outdoor giant stage but if you come, you may want to bring a lawn chair and a blanket if it’s cool. The concert starts at 8 p.m. but Hartman advises if you want good seats, come at 6 or 6:30 p.m.

One of the new things at the Festival this year is the large Activities Tent, which is to the left of the grand outside stage. Many activities will be held there including contests for the best chili, cakes, veggies, crafts, etc. It will be the site of many other activities, too, Hartman said.

Another big attraction this year will be the appearance of the famous Clydesdales, the Budweiser horses that appear on so many TV commercials. The huge horses have been in Lehigh one other time and were a big crowd pleaser.

“So we wanted to bring them back for the parade,” Hartman said.

All the fun things from previous festival will be held such as the Spring Festival Idol Contest, the Little Miss and Prince of the Festival and the older Miss Lehigh Festival, plenty of local entertainment, a contest for the toddlers who can crawl the fastest and more.

On the second day of the Festival, youngsters will be invited to the front of the stage and given bubble gum and for three decades children have tried to blow the biggest bubble for the blue ribbon.

Hartman noted that it has been more difficult this year to raise funds from area businesses because of the recession.

“But a lot of them have come through. Some have not been able to help us as much as they have before because business has been bad,” Hartman said.

“But we appreciate every $20 to $100 or more that we are given. It pays for our Festival,” Hartman said.

Acts such as Jeff Bates, who is bringing his backup band, cost money.

And this year, the big sign at the entrance of the Festival grounds will only carry the names of those who have given, and not the amounts. This is a first and it is because of the hard times in Lehigh.

“I think we’re going to have a great festival though,” Hartman said. “We started off with some seed money left over from last year and that certainly has been a blessing.” It may cost as much as $40,000 to put on this year’s Festival, Hartman said.

He thanked people like the Lehigh Acres Fire Dept., which waived inspection fees a few weeks ago.

“They’re great people and they will come out and make sure our electrical hookups are okay and not charge us the $375 fee,” he said.

Although the Festival has several attractive banners promoting the event, one person’s objection for firefighters putting them up on the lamp posts, scared off the fire department.

Many in Lehigh have noticed that the banners are not up and believe the fire department should have done like it has in the past and put them up anyway.

Opening night of the Festival is Friday, March 20 and the National Anthem will be sung by Kalee Coyle of Lehigh Acres, a great singer in her on right. She was the first winner of the Festival Idol Contest and is a favorite local singer.

The Spring Festival Idol Contest will begin that night and continues throughout the week with finals on Friday night, Feb. 27. Vicki Culver emcees the Idol Contest and there are a panel of judges who make comments, but it is the public that attends who vote each night for their favorite contestant.