Shark's Tooth Festival to return to Venice
VENICE – Venice MainStreet is bringing back the Venice Shark Tooth Festival, which has been absent the past three years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The family-friendly festival, which started in August 1992 as a way to bring people to Venice in the off season, had most recently been hosted as an April event at the Venice Airport Festival Grounds.
This year, the festival is scheduled for April 22-23 at Centennial Park.
Since it’s technically a new festival, the permit was approved by City Council on the consent agenda, Tuesday morning.
“This was a collaborative discussion with the city of Venice,” said Kara Morgan, CEO of Venice MainStreet, the downtown promotional organization. “If the Shark’s Tooth festival were to come back, which organization could bring it back successfully and make it fit the needs of our community and culture of our community?
“That’s how Venice MainStreet got brought into the conversation.”
Related:Venice to create code of conduct for events after complaints about Pride Festival
This was the first “new” downtown festival application to go before the council since the city established a code of conduct for applicants in response to complaints related to the Nov. 12 Venice Pride Festival.
Return to its roots
Admission to the 2023 version of the Shark's Tooth Festival will be free, with events and vendors marking a return to its roots from more than three decades ago, including children’s fossil digs and educational programming at the Venice Gazebo provided by both Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium and the Florida Public Archaeology Network.
John Dale, CEO of Shark Tooth Distillery – one of 12 advisory board members – has been networking with some vendors, while another advisory board member, Brittany Hervas, proprietor of Shark Frenzy, has been talking with gemologists and local shark tooth divers about participating.
Earlier:Two Venice businesses turn searching for fossils and sharks' teeth into lasting memories
“We pulled it back to its roots to bring those people back here,” Dale said.
The festival site plan submitted to the city of Venice reserves space for a Kids Zone near the splash fountain, a concert stage just south of that, an exhibition tent and several vendor booths to the east.
Festival hours will be 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on April 22 and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 23.
How it started
The festival began as an August event, just before to Labor Day, to attract visitors during the slow summer season, recalled Mike Pachota, retired president of Venice Pier Group. It was organized by the Venice Area Chamber of Commerce.
Mary Charland, who helped run the festival, noted the idea was to draw people to south Sarasota County so the chamber could apply for tourist development tax money to foster even more tourism.
“We were expecting 2,000 for the whole weekend and we got 8,000 people on Saturday,” Pachota said.
Earlier:Something 'Special'
The festival continued at the airport as a fundraiser by Sarasota County Special Olympics through April 2019, until being canceled in 2020, '21 and '22 because of COVID-19.
Where its going
One popular aspect of the original festival, the Shark’s Tooth Fishing Tournament returned in September, with the Police Department sponsoring with The Haven to many of the same people who had participated in the Special Olympics-sponsored tournament.
Fishing tournament organizer Venice Marine Patrol Officer Paul Joyce, said that at least for 2023, the fishing tournament will stay in September, but it could coincide with the festival in the future.
Earlier:Venice Shark Tooth Fishing Tournament returns after two-year absence because of COVID-19
Morgan said after the council approved the permit, she anticipated a dedicated web site, https://www.venicesharkstoothfestival.com, would go live with more details.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Venice Shark's Tooth Festival to return after 3 year COVID-19 hiatus
