Festival best of all

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At a time when Americans are tightening their wallets, the tourists flooded in like a storm surge.

At a time when the federal government wants to ban raw oysters, they slurped them up in large quantities.

And at a time when doom and gloom seem to reign, a feisty king and queen presented a good-guy musician in a white cowboy hat who brought an enormous crowd to their feet, cheering for more.

While final tallies are not yet in from last weekend’s 46^th annual Florida Seafood Festival in Apalachicola’s Battery Park, it appears by all accounts to have been a record crowd, at least in everyone’s recent memory.

John Solomon, president of the festival board, said about 13,000 paying patrons attended Saturday, which means that when you add all the free admissions - the children both days and the adults on Friday –upwards of 30,000 people are estimated to gave taken in this year’s festival, not including those who came to town but didn’t visit the park.

“The mayor said there were more people in town than he’s ever seen in his life,” said Solomon, who is finishing up his second year presiding over the festival. “We definitely blew last year out of the water. I think it was remarkable.

            “I was just completely thrilled,” he said. “The festival did well, the local people did well and the local businesses did well. That’s what I’m most happy about.”

Revenue from the festival awaits a final tally, but gross proceeds are believed to be the most ever, and a tremendous improvement over last year’s modest returns.

The Carrabelle Church of God’s raw oysters, the Franklin School juniors’ fried mullet, the sheriff’s office’s boiled peanuts and corn – all sold out by Saturday afternoon.

Add that together with Seahawks’ athletic boosters’ fried oysters and scallops, Eastpoint Church of God’s fried shrimp, the Apalachicola volunteer fire department’s boiled shrimp, Seahawk baseball and softball teams’ hot dogs, hot chocolate and coffee, the ABC School’s bottled water, Mike Mock’s and Robert Murray’s gumbo, and Don Nichols’ smoked mullet – and you had a recipe for success.

“Every single one said they want their spot reserved, they want their spot back,” said Solomon. “I always find something for somebody.”

Private vendors handled everything from alligator tail, a popular item, to apple dumplings, and already they have begun applying for a spot at next year’s festival. Reitthoffer Shows, Inc., who brought the carnival rides, told Solomon they did better than last year, using the same array of carnival rides, and plan to bring in three more for the 2010 festival.

As is traditional, the Blessing of the Fleet kicked off the festival on Friday afternoon, with the queue of boats led by Miss Florida Seafood Isabel Pateritsas and King Retsyo Stan Norred aboard the Buddy’s Boys.

Local clergymen blessing the line of boats, which seemed a bit shorter than in the past, included the Rev. Dr. John Sink, a retired United Methodist pastor; Rev. Casey Smith, from the Eastpoint Church of God; Rev. Thomas Patriotis, pastor of the Apalachicola – St. George Island Methodist churches; Rev. Kay Wheeler, retired deacon from Trinity Episcopal Church; Rev. Kevin Swiney, pastor of the Carrabelle Church of God; crossbearer Micah Patriotis; and bagpiper Chris Clark.

In his remarks, Sink paid tribute to Jimmie Nichols, who died earlier this year, for his role in making sure a blessing of the fleet was included as part of the seafood festivals from their modern inception 46 years ago.

Clark then led the king and queen in a procession to the festival, where Mayor Van Johnson introduced them to the crowd and urged festivalgoers to take in the historic atmosphere of the city.

There were lots of winners on Saturday, beginning with a repeat win by Mike Martin, of Panama City, in the oyster shucking contest. Martin’s time of 1:35.87, for shucking 18 oysters, won him a trip to the nationals in Maryland next year.

He beat out Scotty O’Lear, his fellow shucker at Dusty’s Oyster Bar in Panama City, by less than four seconds, quite a feat given that O’Lear is a 10-time state champ and reigning national champ, who has competed three times in the internationals in Galway, Ireland. Taking third place was their colleague Robert Daffin, in a little over two minutes, followed by Brandon Patrick, from Sandestin.

In the oyster eating contest, Jarrod Heierman, a tile setter from Tallahassee, put on an awesome performance, downing 28 dozen and eight oysters, just short of the record of 33 dozen and three. What made Heierman’s feat so remarkable was that he did it in an abbreviated session of eight minutes, about half the time of the usual 15-minute time.

“I’ll take an asterisk. It’s the only I’ve got,” said Heierman, competing in his first contest. “I can still put a little more down.”

Heierman, who had eaten two sausage biscuits and two frappes earlier that morning, easily outdistanced William Bright, of Tallahassee, who ate 18 dozen in eight minutes, also in the eight-minute round. Third place went to Tommy Barnes, from Hosford, who downed 15 dozen and 10.

Two local people were among the dozen contestants, Charlie Carney, from Carrabelle, who ate 10 dozen and seven, and John York, of Eastpoint, who ate eight dozen and 10.

At the other end of the festival, Bill Bassett, from St. George Island, won the cooking contest for his lane snapper with crab picata sauce, taking home a set of stainless steel pots and pans from Badcock, and dinner for two at Chef Eddie’s Magnolia Café. He also won a dinner at The Hut, for most original dish.

            Second place went to Don Nichols, for smoked mullet, who won a Badcock stainless steel stock pot and dinner at Up the Creek Raw Bar, and third to Fran Edwards, for her Water Street gumbo with shrimp cakes, with her prize a Badcock stainless steel chicken fryer and brunch at Café Momi.

            Solomon said the fields for all five afternoon crab races were filled, after last year’s attendance totals were eclipsed by lunchtime. “We had as many people on Friday night as were on Saturday last year,” said Solomon.

            Country star Tracy Lawrence’s entourage rolled in Saturday morning, and Lawrence took some time to buy a bag of oysters, shuck them and casually take in the oyster contest from a perch on the stage, unbeknownst to onlookers.

            By Saturday night, the baseball diamond grounds had filled for the evening performance, when the new king and queen walked onstage in their finery. From a giant glass jar, Pateritsas plucked the name of Mary Smith as winner of the ABC School’s giveaway of a dream house vacation on St. George Island, donated by St. George Island Vacation Properties. Last month, the festival gave away a three-night stay on the island for festival weekend to winner Abigail Cosine, from Wewahitchka. Panama City’s Wendy Young won a two-night stay at the Buccaneer Inn, and Harry Thibodeaux won a Friday night stay at the Water Street Inn.

            Lawrence's concert went far longer than the 70 minutes he was committed to, and had the crowd begging and cheering for more. Playing many of his greatest hits, and a new song “Pills,” a satirical take on our drug culture that he hopes will become his next hit, Anderson performed for one song shy of two hours. During his huge hit “Paint Me A Birmingham,” Lawrence had the crowd singing the refrain as he held out the microphone.

            Following the regular set, Lawrence and his band came back out for an encore, and performed three numbers, “Swingin’,” made famous by John Anderson; Gene Watson’s “Fourteen Carat Mind,” and Jimmy Buffett’s “Margaritaville.”

            Traffic and parking might have been a problem in the downtown area much of the day, but Apalachicola Police Chief Bobby Varnes said disturbances were at a minimum, with no significant arrests.