Black Friday shoppers have nothing on the dedication of Florida Strawberry Festival fans. Despite frigid temperatures early last week, one family began camping out early Dec. 2 to be first in line when the ticket office opened at 8 a.m. Dec. 6.
The grandstands are filled every year with thousands of concert-goers who pour in to watch some of their
favorite musical acts for an affordable price. Stephanie Spangler and mom Elizabeth Roberts have attended the shows with their family since Spangler was a child. This year was one of the coldest on record during the week of the ticket sales, but the duo braved the chill to get the perfect seats.
“It’s just a tradition at this point,” Spangler said. “We’ve been getting tickets since I was little and it’s been, well I know it’s been way more than 13 years that we’ve been camping out.”
According to Spangler and Roberts, the avid festival concert-goers have formed a community on the bare concrete in front of the ticket office. The same handful of families always make the front of the line, taking turns on who beats the others for the first spot.
The festival workers always pop in to “check on the ticket ladies,” Spangler said. They’ve come to expect several of the families and when they aren’t there they genuinely are concerned something has happened to them.
It may be a strange tradition, but Roberts said seeing the same faces every year as they battle the weather and catch up on all that’s happened in the prior year makes the experience a family reunion of sorts. It’s something they cherish and she said she doubts they’ll stop anytime soon.
This year the festival has a lineup that includes legends like Steven Tyler, Alabama, Martina McBride, Styx and Kool & the Gang. Festival favorites like Willie Nelson and The Oak Ridge Boys are also pulling big crowds.
Tag-teaming the endeavor, Spangler and Roberts set up their chairs and a handful of miscellaneous items and then took turns in shifts to guard the chairs. Roberts spent the night the first night then Spangler switched spots. This repeated with a handful of mutual visits where they spent time “hanging out” together at the makeshift camp until early Wednesday morning when both committed to the long-haul.
Deanna Mather and husband John Mather drove down from Cape Coral to be at the front of the line. They were hoping to nab seats to the Willie Nelson, The Letterman and The Oak Ridge Boys shows.
Deanna Mather said her 67-year-old cousin was coming to the festival for the very first time this year and they wanted to ensure she had fantastic seats for the shows.
Cindy Bentley-Roberts and Bentley Rae Roberts were also some of the handful of attendees to show up for the campout.
They’ve been coming for years and said they look forward to catching up with their “festival family” as they all wait together in the temperamental Florida weather. They said this year was one of the roughest they’ve had to sit through though and they all wore thick clothing and brought heavy blankets to get through the night.
When asked if they truly thought this would score better tickets than they could get in the online queue the group shrugged and said it “was about more than just getting good seats.”
When the ticket window opened bright and early Spangler and Roberts were able to score front row tickets to the many shows they hoped to see in 2019, including Old Dominion, Chris Janson and the Chicks with Hits concert. Their fellow camp buddies also were successful in purchasing the tickets of their dreams.