Plans are underway putting together a music, food, crafts and games festival at Ernie Mills Park in Dunnellon on the 4th of July weekend.  It will be a two day event on July 5th and 6th, a Saturday and a Sunday.  From 11am to 10pm Saturday and 8am to 5pm Sunday.

Volunteers who want to help are needed at the front gate and two side gates.  Also to help run some of the games and contests along with a few other positions available.  If you can help please fill out the contact form on our web site OneRakeataTime.org or write to info@OneRakeataTime.org

Ernie Mills Park is located at 11899 Bostick Street in the center of Dunnellon right off Pennsylvania Ave. (hwy. 484) near the intersection with Williams Street (hwy. 41). It is a beautiful park with a covered band stand that we will have local music durning the two day Festival.  Watch the paper or check Facebook OneRakeataTime for the upcoming line up of Artists that will be performing on stage.

The event is being Hosted by One Rake at a Time, Inc.  A nonprofit public charity to help raise money to support cleanup and restoration efforts currently underway along the Rainbow River.  Adults are $5 and children under the age of 18 are free.

There will also be about 80 craft and assorted vendors set up in tents both days.  The emphasis will be on local vendors from the surrounding area, so there will be a lot of unique crafts and the Festival will support the local businesses.

The food will be amazing as we are not planning out of town food trucks, but instead will have the local restaurants set up tables to show off some of their most popular eats.  We are also planning on fresh local made ice cream from M&B Dairy in Citrus county.  If you have never had any of it before, that alone is worth a visit to the festival, it’s great ice cream.

We are planning on having many fun games going on throughout both days.  There will be a corn hole tournament with local prizes from local merchants, a free throw basketball tournament to see who can make the most baskets in a row with top prizes given out both days. Also a kayak poker run on Saturday evening and Sunday morning.

Also we are planning on setting up a pickle ball  tournament in the court at the park and are looking for some one to run that as I personally don’t know much about that game, but people tell me it is a lot of fun and very popular.

We will have some fun other games set up like Jenga using large size pieces.  And are hoping to set up 2 horse show pits, that we can leave behind so even after the Festival people can play horse shoes if they bring their own horse shoes.  I know the game is popular in Citrus County and am hoping to find someone run and judge the contest.  If you know of anyone please have them reach out to me.

The Music from the stage will be top notch musicians from the area that will be organized by a Grammy nominated writer and musician that lives right here in the Dunnellon area.  We will be renting a dance floor to set up in front of the stage and are planning some good dance music in the evening from 8 to 10pm, but of course people can dance anytime the music motivates them.

It is the 4th of July weekend and we know it will be hot so we are planning to set up a cooling tent near the playground where misters can cool people down a little bit. We are also looking at other things that we can add to the playground area for kids.  Contact us if you have any equipment you can lend us or help out with the children’s area.

We are also looking for local sponsors and venders and are just starting to sign people up now so if you know anybody you think might make a good vender please refer them to our website or email us at events@OneRakeataTime.org

We have a sponsorship package available and will feature all of our sponsors prominently at the entry gates, and both sides of the main stage, along with promotions on social media and shout outs from the stage both days.

Contact Art Jones via email at  info@OneRakeataTime.org or text or call me at 727-642-7659.  If I don’t pick up, please leave a message and I will get back to you.  Thanks again to all those who helped at the city beach cleanup on March 6th.

Art Jones