FELLSMERE — Visitors to the 18th annual Frog Leg Festival will, for the first time on city property, be able to drink a beer with their food.

And the festival organizers will be able to collect the additional proceeds in their ongoing mission to boost the efforts of recreational agencies.

“I can’t tell you how many people have said to me, ‘I’d like to come out (to the festival), but I’d want to have a beer with my frog legs or gator tail,’ ” festival President Maggie Sammons said Thursday.City Council members toasted the new move, voting 4-0 for a new exception to the city’s general ban on public alcohol consumption.

“I think we should try this,” Vice Mayor Joel Tyson said, making the motion. “If it works, great. If not, we stop it.”

The new city policy allows nonprofit groups to sell beer or wine, but only on approval from the council after the group applies for the permit and provides $1 million in insurance and a $500 damage deposit.

The festival, which dates to 1990, was able twice to sell beer, in 2002 and 2003. But that was when it took place at the former MESA Park, a private location. All other years, the Frog Leg Festival has taken place on the city-owned Little League field next to the Old Fellsmere School.

Even in the two years at MESA, Sammons said, the festival didn’t get the beer proceeds. Park owners kept that money as a condition of being host to the festival.

So she doesn’t know how much beer will add to the $30,000 to $60,000 the festival gets to donate to recreational groups each year.

“We’re just getting our feet wet with beer, so I don’t know what we’re up against,” Sammons said.

She said the festival arranged with Carroll Distributing Co. of Melbourne to provide Budweiser and Bud Light at $3 a beer and Landshark and American Ale at $4 a beer once the city gave the approval.

But with the city’s approval come controls. Beer will only be served in cups in the baseball diamond during entertainment hours, Sammons said.

IF YOU GO

18th annual Fellsmere Frog Leg Festival

Hours: 4 to 11 p.m. Jan. 15 and 16; 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Jan. 17;

11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Jan. 18

Beer prices: $3-$4 per 16-ounce cup from 5 to

9 p.m. Jan. 15 and 16; noon to

9 p.m. Jan. 17; noon to 5 p.m. Jan. 18

Festival location: County Road 512, east of Old Fellsmere School

By Henry A. Stephens, TCPalm.com

Tags: drinking, fellsmere, festival, frog, leg, prices, property, roads, vote, wine

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