FELLSMERE — The Fellsmere Frog Leg Festival has hopped out of town, gone again until next year. The 21st annual event brought in a record crowd, according to kitchen staff who were quickly turning out box after box of frog legs and gator tail.
Before 3 p.m. Sunday, the frog legs had run out – not typical for the festival. Usually, the gator tail is the first to go.
Ali Martin, the Frog Leg Kitchen manager, said they had about 600 pounds of frog legs when they opened the kitchen Sunday and noted the legs could run out soon. The night before, the kitchen volunteers dished out 2,100 frog leg dinners and 1,100 gator dinners – a record, according to Martin.
A finally tally on the number of meals served was not immediately available. But with perfect weather all four days of the festival, the crowds descended on the event at the Old Fellsmere School and stayed longer than they did last year when the weather was bitter cold.
Helping to keep families engaged at the festival were new contests and games, including a Children’s Frog Hop, sponsored by the Indian River County Airboat Association.
Racing three at a time, children knelt into the grass coaching their frogs from one end of a track to the other.
Shrieks and peals of laughter rang out as the frogs jumped in any direction they so chose, even landing well outside the track onto unsuspecting bystanders’ shoes.
The first winner was 3-year-old Myla McKernan, who enlisted the help of her mom, Nurian, to keep the frog in line.
“It was her (idea), but she was afraid of the frog,” Nurian said of Myla’s participation in the contest.
Children “rented” a frog from the Airboat Association for $1 and returned their racers back to their tub when done.
“She’s having a blast,” Nurian said Myla’s first time to the Fellsmere Frog Leg Festival. They live in Stuart and made the drive this year to check it out.
Sisters Savannah Brown, 12, and Amanda, 9, from Port St. Lucie, also participated in the Frog Hop – both grossed out by frogs.
“We wanted to do an adventure,” Savannah said; Amanda nodded in agreement.
“It was fun,” Amanda said.
“We’re having a great time,” their mom, Margaret Combs, said of coming out to the festival, noting there wasn’t much happening in their town on Sunday.
The Children’s Frog Hop was one of several new contests at the festival this year, which included a Grapefruit Shuffleboard contest, mechanical bull riding tournaments, and a dance-off for free frog leg dinners.
The annual festival serves as a fundraiser for youth recreation in Fellsmere and has raised well over $500,000 in the last 20 years. How much was raised this year was not immediately known.
