The 28th annual Caladium Festival opened today in Lake Placid. The signature event of the Caladium Capital will feature a wide array of activities with nearly 100 Arts & Crafts vendors, food booths, live music, exhibits, displays and of course – plenty of caladiums.
Bus tours of the caladium fields also will be available over the course of the three-day event. Tomorrow will be the Dr Tom Mc Donald 5K run as well as the Car & Bike Show. Dozens of classic, custom and vintage vehicles will be featured there.
The Caladium Festival runs thru Sunday.
A new performance is coming to the Alan J. Wildstein Center for the Performing Arts at South Florida State College. Power & Light Productions of Hardee County reportedly is moving from the Cattlemen’s Arena in Wauchulla, where they have staged such large productions as “Moses” and “The Story of Jesus” for decades.
Spokesman Mike Graham said this new production will be scaled-back from what they have done in the past. The presentation is slated for April of next year and will be a narrative of the Bible, encompassing a dozen different stories.
Auditions for the program are slated for mid-August.
Quick work by Highlands Lakes firefighters yesterday afternoon as they were called to extinguish a vehicl. The blaze at a North Avon Boulevard spread from a vehicle & trailer to the adjacent field, briefly threatening a shed and an orange grove.
Firefighters contained the flames, saving the shed and Grove from damage. Damage to the vehicle and a mower was listed over $20,000 with the cause ruled electrical.
A Polk County jury has failed to reach a verdict, forcing a mistrial in a fatal home invasion case.
Jurors in Bartow announced the deadlock Wednesday evening in the first-degree murder trial of 20-year-old Joseph Edward Gomes-Brandon Jr. Prosecutors say they’ll be bringing the case back.
Authorities say Gomes-Brandon kicked in the door of a Winter Haven home in May 2016 and fatally shot 21-year-old Tyler Macklin during a robbery.
The prosecution’s main witness was a co-defendant who identified Gomes-Brandon as the shooter. Defense attorneys say that co-defendant was the real killer and lied about Gomes-Brandon’s involvement.