THREE FAMILIES BECOME LIKE ONE.
If you have driven past the building that sells Strawberry Festival concerts tickets anytime in the last couple of weeks, you may have noticed four tents set up on the sidewalk outside. As a matter of fact, if you have driven past this place at this time in the last 15 years, you would have seen tents. Why? These people captured the front of the line about two weeks before the tickets go on sale to get front row seats at Strawberry Festival concerts. “I am here because it’s a family tradition,” Donna Elliott said. “We are on my grandkids and my great grandkids now. These are great Christmas presents—great gifts for the kids. Last year my son wanted Flo Rida, and the grandsons wanted Oliver Anthony. This year my daughter and I have been out nine nights.”
The tradition is among three families. “It really is fun,” Donna added. “We cook dinner out here. We have a blast. We play games. You should have heard them the other night. They were playing Catch Phrase. They were giggling and carrying on. We had a fire pit going. We grilled hot dogs. We had chips and potato salad. Jessica is bringing a pot roast tonight. Kristy is making rice.”
Some of the group scheduled days off for for the line sitting. Some of them come and go to work, but a family member is always present to keep their spot. And the families look out for each other to hold the others’ places in line if someone has to go to the bathroom. The tents are filled with things like cots, blankets, television screens, and video game consoles. “We’ve got it going on,” Jessica McDaniel said. “We are highly trained professionals.”
“It has been cold, but the secret for me and my daughter, Jackie, is electric blankets,” Donna said. “It’s saving us because we know we can’t put a heater in the tent. They let us plug into the building.” Three years ago, it was so cold somebody at General RV brought us girls a camper—a nice camper and put it out there for the night. It was a blast. People still had to sit out here. Somebody went and got a heater that blew down on them. All the ladies went in the camper. It was awesome.”
The families get considerable outside support. The Florida Strawberry Festival provides Porta Potties and trash cans. Local restaurants, like Maryland Fried Chicken, and Hungry Howie’s support the group by sending food to them for free. One of their friends brought them Chik-Fil-A.
“We just really do it for the front row tickets,” Jackie Elliott said. “We hope to get it.” This year the group is waiting to get seats in the first row to see headliner acts like Baily Zimmerman, the Oak Ridge Boys, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Lauren Daigle, and Reba McIntire. As a young girl 33 years ago, Jackie had a photo taken with Reba. “We are hoping to get that recreated this year,” Donna said. “I’ve had my picture made with George Jones, Merle Haggard, the Statler Brothers, Vince Gill, and Billy Ray Cyrus. We stood in line for Kenzie Wheeler (from Dover) tickets, too. He is amazing—on The Voice—we like him. He was one of the better shows that year.”
“I start out saying I am going to get just five tickets, and the next thing you know I have 10,” Jessica said. “If you are going to be out here for so long, you just might as well do it.” Tickets go on sale Thursday December 12, but there is 79 percent chance of rain on Wednesday. “You can bring us a camper if you want to,” Jessica suggested.
