by Meahgan Jameyson, Staff Writer
Every year in October, Dade City’s annual Rattlesnake Festival takes place. This year, the festivities were as grand and unique as ever, boasting food, vendors, and entertainment.
Walking into the festival, which took place in the center of a blocked off San Antonio, the first thing all visitors caught a glimpse of was a small car show boasting large, lifted trucks with paint jobs that would shame a stained glass window and vintage cars older than many of the festival’s visitors.
After the car show and surrounding the festival in a large rectangle were vendor tents. Each tent was selling something different, and each novelty was as unique as the next. A few of these were selling hand-made soaps, hand-crafted jewelry, golf balls with faces carved into them, and something called a “redneck wind chime” which was constructed by nailing empty beer cans to a wooden plank. There was even a booth for Saint Leo University’s Future Teachers of America organization which was providing free arts and crafts for festival-goers.
At the center of the ring of vendors stood giant inflatable moon bounces in the guises of a basketball court, a princess castle, and an obstacle course. Also sharing the space with the inflatables were blood drive stations, pony rides, and an animal exhibition. Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Incorporated had animals on display for festival visitors, including a full grown bobcat, panther, and tiger.
In the midst of all the merriment, there was assuredly a more serious side to the Rattlesnake Festival. The James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital was at the festival reaching out to local veterans. The hospital’s goal was to both inform veterans without health benefits that they could enroll for such benefits through the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital, and to offer free flu shots to veterans already enrolled.
There were many forms of entertainment provided for festival guests. The Rattlesnake Festival boasted live music, including Ashley Shannon, the North America Country Music Associations International 2011 Entertainer and Country Album of the Year. For the children, there were gopher races held in the center of the grassy field next to the animal enclosures. Each child got to decorate a saddle for their gopher and pulled them (or “raced” them) along two lengths of rope on the track. All gopher “jockeys” won a ribbon at the finish of the race, no matter what place they came in. Also, snake shows were held in the same section of the field every hour for the duration of the festival. Though this show was mesmerizing and breathtaking, it was wonderfully relieving to know that the Rattlesnake Festival is not only about snakes; it has so much more to offer.
