This spring marks the 88th annual Florida Strawberry Festival, which takes place for 11 days from Thursday, March 2 through Sunday, March 12. This anticipated annual event has become one of the best festivals in the nation, ranks among the Top 40 Fairs in North America and is visited by more than 500,000 guests each year. It’s not only known for its strawberry shortcakes, carnival games, livestock shows, food vendors and thrilling midway rides, but it has also become recognized for hosting world-famous headline entertainment.
Two major Christian artists will be performing at this year’s festival: For King & Country and CeCe Winans. For King & Country is a Grammy-winning artist and song-writing duo consisting of two brothers, Joel and Luke Smallbone. The Australian brothers have won four Grammy Awards, 10 GMA Dove Awards, a Billboard Music Award and 13 K-LOVE Fan Awards, and their nine No. 1 songs have produced an astonishing accumulation of over 1 billion on-demand streams. The duo’s songs have spent many weeks peaking at the top of the Christian Billboard charts.
According to Lee Bakst, assistant general manager of the Florida Strawberry Festival, this will be For King & Country’s second performance at the Strawberry festival. The Christian artists performed previously to a sold-out crowd in 2017.
Another most-anticipated Christian artist making her premier performance at the festival is legendary CeCe Winans. She started performing in 1981 as part as the Winans family singing group and launched her solo career in 1995. Winans is the best-selling female gospel artist of all time and has influenced a generation of vocalists over the course of her long career. Winans has earned 12 Grammy Awards, 20 Dove Awards and seven Stellar Awards. She’s been inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Nashville Music City Walk of Fame. Her performance at the Strawberry Festival will be part of her first national tour in nearly a decade.
There are more than 24 artists performing on the Strawberry Festival stage this year. “We have a variety of acts and feel like we have touched all music genres,” said Bakst. According to past numbers, Bakst expects approximately 100,000 concertgoers in attendance over the course of the 11-day festival.
For King & Country will be performing on Thursday, March 9 at 7:30 p.m. CeCe Winans is scheduled to perform on Tuesday, March 7 at 7:30 p.m.
To purchase tickets and see the full list of entertainers, visit www.flstrawberryfestival.com. Tickets can also be purchased at the Amscot Main Ticket Office, located at 2209 W. Oak Ave. in Plant City, or by calling 813-754-1996.
