Chocolate cream, coconut cream, banana cream, apple, cherry, pumpkin, pecan, raspberry and key lime. If that sounds like a roll call of popular pies, that’s exactly what it is.
Those pies and more were on display Jan. 24 at the inaugural Zephyrhills Pie Festival & Community Bake Off at Zephyr Park, 38116 5th Ave., in Zephyrhills.
(Fred Bellet/Photo)
If an entire day celebrating one specific dessert seems over the top, event coordinator Sonya Bradley said it’s actually an overdue tribute to a family favorite.
“It’s just fun,” she said. “Old school, traditional festivals are fun.” Bradley has fond memories of holidays when older family members would bake and bring pies to dinner, and she wanted to create a fun atmosphere for adults and children to sample a variety of pies.
And people were eager to do just that, with more than 2,000 in attendance to participate in different interactive events. There was a pie-baking contest, with winner Orma Moon taking home some money and a trophy thanks to her victorious cranberry-apple creation. There was also a pie buffet, where visitors could enjoy all the pie and ice cream they could eat for one set price. Those who didn’t want all pie all the time were able to sample more traditional carnival food at various stations.
The pie festival also included a live band and more than 50 vendors promoting crafts, jewelry, candles and even animal conservation. While the vendors offered a variety of products and information, Bradley said it was important for the festival, which featured free admission and parking, to be more than visiting booths and hearing music. The contest and buffet were important aspects in bringing people together.
“It forces interaction, which makes the festival so much fun,” she said. In a way, it was too much fun: A scheduled pie-eating contest had to be scrapped when the buffet proved to be so popular that they didn’t have enough pies.
Bradley’s Simply Events put the festival together, which is just one event the company has planned for Zephyr Park. They’ll also oversee the Snowbird Palooza event, geared toward residents who migrate downs to Zephyrhills for part of the year, at the same location next month.
According to Bradley, the turnout was so good that residents can probably expect another one next year, with more pies on hand to meet the large demand.
“It’s been crazy. It’s great,” she said as she was shuttling pies to eager judges. “We didn’t expect all this.”
