Tag Archives: Outdoor

Veg Fest 2023

Saturday, October 28 from 10:30 AM to 6:00 PM
Orlando Festival Park 2911 E. Robinson Street Orlando, FL

Central Florida Veg Fest is an exciting day of colorful and educational exhibits and activities! It will take place at beautiful Orlando Festival Park near downtown Orlando on October 28, 2023 from 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. Admission is FREE! Veg Fest is a family-friendly, dog-friendly, alcohol-free, and smoke-free event. Veg Fest, now in its 18th year, is one of the biggest and best vegan festivals in the country!

Central Florida Veg Fest will draw both committed vegans and those who want to learn more about how veg-living enhances our health, the planet, and its inhabitants. Come enjoy a diverse cross-section of vegan cuisines and lifestyles. Discover new products and ideas from over 200 vendors and 100 contributors and enjoy a wide variety of presentations and food preparation demos. Not a vegetarian? Whether you’re looking for new ideas to add color and variety to your meals or you’re a “seasoned” vegetarian interested in expanding your knowledge of nutritious and ethical foods, this is the place for you. Please RSVP on the Veg Fest event page and join the Veg Fest community page for regular updates about the event. And please share these pages with your family and friends.

Enjoy speakers, food preparation demonstrations, a veggie kids zone, an animal haven, an artist corner, music on an acoustic stage, lots of other activities, and many veg-friendly vendors. There are so many fun and interesting things happening at Veg Fest you will want to stay all day. And so much delicious vegan food that you can have breakfast, lunch, and dinner with plenty of snacks in between!

For more information click here

Kick Cancer’s Butt – Great Cycle Challenge

Thursday, September 1 to Friday, September 30

Party Diges’s IT guy, Chuck Gregory, is riding for the third year in a row in The Great Cycle Challenge, a fantastic fundraising event benefitting the Children’s Cancer Research Center. His goals are 300 miles and $500 in donations. Help him to meet or exceed those targets!

Chuck’s riding year has been challenging. In February, he was hit by a car when riding his electric trike, and it took months for him to be able to ride again. Fortunately, he did get an insurance settlement for the trike itself, which almost covered the replacement. More recently, he was investing in a folding bicycle to go with his trike, but he had some trouble keeping the wheels on the road and his head in the air instead of the other way round. The bike was great but just not right for him, so it’s back with Carvelle Bikes (https://www.carvellebikes.com/) to be sold on consignment…

So, the rest of his ride this year will be on the trike. Be aware that he still has to pedal, hard, even though it’s an electric trike.

Any contribution you make for the Great Cycle Challenge will be appreciated, not only by Chuck and Party Digest, but most importantly by the kids who are having to deal with this terrible disease.

Photos are from various trips Chuck’s taken this year as part of the challenge.

For more information click here

Coming Soon – Great Cycle Challenge

Thursday, September 1 to Friday, September 30

ONE MONTH. ONE GOAL. FIGHT KIDS’ CANCER.
This September, we’re riding to end childhood cancer and save little lives.

Every hill we climb and every mile we pedal will be to honor those lives we’ve lost and stand with those brave kids still fighting to survive. These kids won’t give up, and neither will we.

Our goal is to fund life-saving research to develop safer and more effective treatments, and find cures for all childhood cancers.

Because kids should be living life, NOT fighting for it.

Party Digest’s Chuck Gregory will be riding for the third year in a row. Stay tuned for updates on fundraising and riding goals.

For more information click here

Jax Craft Beer 2nd Annual Mini Beer Fest

Saturday, June 18 from 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM
Jax Craft Beer, 9825 San Jose Boulevard #18, Jacksonville, FL 32257

Join us for our second annual Mini Beer Fest at Jax Craft Beer! Join us on June 18th for an awesome experience!

We’ll be featuring newly released taproom exclusive beers from over twenty local, state, and national breweries including:

Collective Arts Brewing

Playalinda Brewing Company

Barrel of Monks Brewing

First Magnitude Brewing Company

Motorworks Brewing

Funky Buddha Brewery

Captain Lawrence Brewing Company

Fishweir Brewing Company

Hourglass Brewing Company

Aslin Brewing Company

Barrel Culture Brewing & Blending

Tabula Rasa Brewing

Ology Brewing Company

450 North Brewing Company

Rusty Rail Brewing Company

Southern Swells Brewing

…and the list keeps growing!

Food vendors will also be on site!

Ticket price includes tasting tickets good for TEN 5oz pours of your choice of event beers, plus a souvenir limited edition logo tasting glass! Ticketed attendees may also enjoy 10% off any additional draft purchases on event day.

For more information click here

Cheltenham National Festival – Save the Date

Tuesday, March 14 to Friday, March 17
Cheltenham Racecourse, UK

The Cheltenham Festival is recognised worldwide as the pinnacle of the jump race calendar – it is quite simply the Olympic Games of National Hunt racing.
Each day of the festival offers spectacular jump racing, building up to the grand finale, the Gold Cup, on Friday.Across each of its four race days, the Cheltenham Festival produces a special atmosphere. The ‘Cheltenham Roar’, which refers to the huge amount of noise generated for the start of the first race of the festival, is something not to be missed.

For more information click here

World Sea Turtle Day

Thursday, June 16

World Sea Turtle Day, June 16th, is a day used to honor and highlight the importance of sea turtles. These creatures, like any other creature, are magnificent in their own way. Not only are sea turtles beautiful animals, but they also show incredible perseverance and resiliency – after all, they have been nesting on beaches for millions of years. So of course they deserve their own day dedicated to their awesomeness!

World Sea Turtle Day would not be rightfully celebrated without mentioning, Dr. Archie Carr, Sea Turtle Conservancy’s founder and “father of sea turtle biology.” World Sea Turtle Day is celebrated the same day as Dr. Carr’s birthday, June 16th. Dr. Carr will forever be remembered for the enhancement of the sea turtle conservation movement and the legacy he has left behind. His research and advocacy brought attention to the threatening conditions that continue to impact sea turtles today. His work highlighted the issues and helped create the community that continues to strive for a better life and future for sea turtles around the globe.

For more information click here

Jacksonville Taco & Margarita Festival

Saturday, June 4 from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM
TIAA Bank Field and Daily’s Place

The Jacksonville Taco & Margarita Festival returns to TIAA Bank Field and Daily’s Place June 4th. Find over 20 of Jacksonville’s best restaurants, food trucks & carts serving up an amazing variety of mouthwatering tacos & related food items (sold separately). There will be bars and beverage stations serving margaritas, tequila shots, ice cold beer, water, soda & more. Fun for the whole family with live DJ and bands!

11:00 am – VIP doors
12:00 pm – General Admission door
6:00 pm – Event concludes

General Admission and VIP Tickets are available.

Have a restaurant or food truck? Click here for more information.
Want to be a retail vendor or sponsor? Email info@unitedfestivalproductions.com for more information.

For more information click here

Get your kids to grill with you – tips from Sugar Plum

6 Tips to Get Grilling with Your Kids This Summer

Make Menu Planning a Family Affair

Kids love to be part of the things we do, so menu planning as a family makes the meal more meaningful to your kids. Children are also more apt to try new foods when it’s something they’ve helped plan and prepare. Let them browse online for fun recipes or get out the old cookbooks!

Bring Up Your Own Little Sous Chefs

One of my favorite things to do as a kid was to be my mom’s little sous chef. She would tell me what I needed to do, teach me what I didn’t know and really let me be part of the whole cooking process. Get your own kids involved by having them wash the veggies, help make the marinade for the meat, thread the kabobs, learn to season the meat and veggies and begin doing some chopping and dicing with a kid safe knife. There’s no definitive time when a child is deemed ready to use a real knife—use your own judgement and gage the readiness and maturity of your child. They can practice by using a butter knife and a banana or a stick of butter.

Prep the Grill Together

As you know, grills get very hot! Teaching your child the potential dangers of being around a hot grill is crucial. They need to know how far to stand back from it when it’s on, what it can potentially do if you’re not careful and how to handle injuries associated to the grill. While it’s still important to have an adult with a child around a grill at all time, they can be part of the initial set-up of the grill, where to put wood chips, charcoal, propane. It’s also important to explain how it all works to help you cook delicious foods. Once familiar with being around the grill while heated, they can help flip the burgers, rotate the veggies,

It’s the Perfect “Season” to Grill Together

Creating marinades and seasoning the meat and veggies before they go on the grill is one of the most perfect jobs for kids. It’s a fairly easy, fun task for younger kids, it helps them learn measurements, and how different flavors and spices can work together to make some of their favorite foods yummy! Developing a taste for different spices is super beneficial for their ever changing and growing palate.

Set a Fun and Festive Tablescape Together

Setting the table in a festive way for your family meal is half the fun. Let the kids lay out a tablecloth, the plates and silverware, fill the glasses with water or lemonade and make homemade place cards with each family member’s name on it. Each step in the family meal process helps children develop a love and commitment to the family meal time. The more important you make it, the more important it will become to them as the traditions become permanent.

Clean-up, Clean-up, Everybody Clean-up!

While not as fun as cooking, cleaning up is an important part of the cooking process. Teach your kids young that cleaning up is a family event and they’ll grow up knowing it’s just something you do together. They can help with washing, drying, and putting away dishes. Be creative and don’t be afraid to make this part of the process fun!

Summerfest

Sunday, August 1 from 10:30 AM to 1:30 PM
Liberty Pines Academy

Free! An event by Access Church
Food • Water Fun • Bounce Houses • Shaved Ice • Face Painting • And More!
Come as you are and enjoy environments for the whole family at 10:30am, then stay after for Summerfest.

For more information click here

Block Party Half Marathon

Saturday, November 20
Jacksonville

GET READY TO PARTY, JACKSONVILLE!

NOVEMBER 20, 2021
The inaugural Block Party Half Marathon & 5K is coming to Jacksonville, FL for a thrilling day of running and celebrating all things Jax! You’ll have a blast running through the heart of downtown Jacksonville and along beautiful St. Johns River, with the run triumphantly concluding in bustling James Weldon Johnson Park where the festivities are just getting started.

The post-race block party will feature local businesses and vendors, rockin’ music, and delicious craft beer! Plus, we are proud to support the St. Johns RIVERKEEPER, a non-profit watchdog organization dedicated to defending the St. Johns River and advocating for its protection.

For more information click here