Lowry Park (Band Shell...not
the Zoo)
7530 North Blvd., Tampa FL 33604
10 a.m.-4 p.m.
A big THANKS to everyone who participated in the second Talking Animals Festival as a vendor, a tabler, a food vendor, a sponsor (particularly Petco & tbt*/The St. Petersburg Times), a musician, a speaker, etc.--or, of course, attendee. An equal size thanks to the cast of thousands--only mild exaggeration!--who worked tirelessly to make the Festival such a fun, successful day for all concerned.
Satellite Parking Locations
The first two locations are 0.7 miles walking distance to Talking Animals Festival at Lowry Park Bandshell Area, and starting at 12:30pm, we will offer a shuttle bus between those two locations and Lowry Park. We also have a third parking location, two blocks from Lowry Park. Details for all three satellite parking locations are below.
Directions from I-275
Take Exit 48, head west on E. Sligh Avenue. Proceed 0.4 miles.
Turn right (north) at N. Florida Ave. Proceed 0.1 miles (one block).
Turn left (west) at W. Flora Street. Parking lot entrance is on the left.
(2) Lowry Park Church
919 W Kirby Street
Tampa 33604
NOTE: parking lot entrance is located off of N. Newport Street
Google Map!
Direction from north locations via I 275
Take Exit 50, merge on FL-580 W/E Busch Boulevard. Proceed west 1.1 miles.
Turn left (south) at N. Boulevard. Proceed 0.6 miles.
Turn right (west) at Co Rd 584/W Waters Avenue. Proceed 0.2 miles.
Take the 3rd left (south) onto N Newport Ave. Proceed 0.5 miles.
Lowry Park Church parking lot entrance is on the left.
Please park to the left in the grass and not adjacent to the sidewalk which will be reserved for church attendees.
Direction from south locations via I 275
Take Exit 48, Turn left (west / Lowry Park Zoo) on to E. Sligh Avenue. Proceed 0.9 miles.
Turn right (north) at N. Boulevard. Proceed 0.5 miles.
Turn left (west) at W. Kirby Street. Proceed 0.2 miles.
Turn right (north) at N. Newport Avenue.
Lowry Park Church parking lot entrance is on the right.
Please park to the left in the grass and not adjacent to the sidewalk which will be reserved for church attendees.
Turn east on West Lambright Street. Proceed 0.8 miles.
West Lambright Street turns into West Sligh Avenue. Proceed another 1.2 miles
Look for Talking Animals Parking signs on the right.
Turn right into parking drive.
Directions from I-275
Take Exit 48, head west on E. Sligh Avenue. Proceed 1.0 mile.
Proceed past festival on the right.
Look for Talking Animals Parking signs on the left.
Turn left into parking drive.
2011 Festival Announcements
Here's When Bands Are Playing, Contests Happening
As we've noted previously in this section, we feel thrilled and fortunate to have assembled such a strong, varied line-up of bands to perform animal songs at
the Talking Animals Festival, with music traversing genres from Americana to ska, from folk to funk. We'd previously announced the 13 acts who will play animal songs--both originals and covers--on the Lowry Park Band Shell Stage, but now we can present the schedule, including three different contests and our raffle. We'll also have WMNF DJs Arielle Stevenson, Brigid Ochshorn, Eluv and Scott Elliott spinning animal songs between bands.
BAND SHELL SCHEDULE (times and bands subject to change)
10:00-10:12 DJ
10:20-10:32 Dirty Spoons and Trash Revue (folk-rock-Americana)
10:40-10:52 Sandy Atkinson & The True Loves (blues)
11:00-11:12 Ronny Elliott (folk)
11:20-11:32 Bird St Players (funk/r&b)
11:40-11:52 Owner/Pet Lookalike Contest
12:00-12:12 Lauris Vidal (indie-folk)
12:20-12:32 Kelly McCrae (folk)
12:40-12:52 Dog Peter Pat [Pete Galagher] (folk)
1:00-1:12 Rayzilla's PBS (world/experimental)
1:20-1:32 Smart pet tricks
1:40-1:52 The Sun Society (folk-pop)
2:00-2:12 Damon Fowler (solo-acoustic blues)
2:20-2:32 Project pet walk
2:40-2:52 Tribal Style (reggae)
3:00-3:12 Sons of Hippies (alternative)
3:20-3:32 Raffle
3:40-3:52 Magadog (ska)
Talking People At The Talking Animals Festival
The Talking Animals Festival is delighted to announce our slate of five speakers, who will deliver talks on a wide variety of topics. While this schedule is subject to change, the speakers, topics and times of their talks are listed below. The talks will run 20-30 minutes, including questions & answers, and you can find out more about the speakers &/or their talks by clicking on the link next to their name.
10:30am: What Makes a Good Pet?
Kelly Diedring Harris more info
11:30am: Do You Have a Disaster Plan for Your Pets?
Connie Brooks more info
12:30pm: Hazards of the Home
Chuck Schobert more info
1:30pm: Holistic Therapies, Food and the Truth about Vaccinations
Dr. Anne Lampru more info
2:30pm: Vegan Tales from the Appalachian Trail
Jim Janolek more info
Soccer Playing Dogs!
The Talking Animals Festival is pleased to present games played throughout the day by two soccer-playing border collies, Ms.Z and BEK--and maybe you?!?! These dogs, from SoccerCollies.com, are amazing--we saw them in action recently when their human, Mark Lukas, came over to look at Lowry Park--and even the most gifted goalie would be hard pressed to defend against either of these gifted canines. For a little sample of Ms.Z and BEK in action, check out this clip. Calling all 4 to 12 year old soccer players--you're not only invited to participate, but also to wear your soccer uniform. And, for that matter, all kids between the ages of 2 and 92 are invited, too. It's more fun if there are big teams playing against the dogs, so the more the merrier--come one, come all.
Bounce House From Bounce Away Bouncers
Thanks to the kindness and generosity of Bounce Away Bouncers, a bounce house company serving the Tampa Bay Area, The Talking Animals Festival will offer a bounce house on the grounds of Lowry Park--and it will be FREE! All the usual rules will apply--no doing flips... keep all food, candy and drinks out of the bounce house...no sharp object, etc.--but it will be available for free bouncing all day long at the Festival.
Would You Like To Volunteer At The Festival?
Like WMNF, the public radio station producing it, the Talking Animals Festival is volunteer-powered. And the Festival is a big, sprawling event with multiple moving parts, so we need all kinds of volunteers to help with all kinds of things at all kinds of times on April 3. From making sure our dog friends throughout Lowry Park have all the water they need, to assisting with our bounce house, to tasks involving more heavy lifting, we'd love to have your help for an hour or two. Please contact Dawn Dickens at [email protected]. Thank you!
Come Hungry: Delicious Food Served At The Fest
Immediately in the wake of last year's Talking Animals Festival, we pledged that the food served at the next Festival would be vegan and vegetarian fare, a commitment we've been happy to fulfill. We're even happier--maybe even willing to brag a little--that an impressive group of food vendors has signed on to provide delicious food at the Festival on April 3. They are, in alphabetical order, Ella's Americana Folk Art Cafe, Lettuce Eat Healthy, Loving Hut, Ol' Kentucky Concessions, Queen Of Sheba, Repicci's Italian Ice, and Sweetsie's Specialty Bakery.
Silent Auction & Raffle Items
The Talking Animals Festival will feature both a raffle and a silent auction, with items ranging from gift certificates for pet sitting and other services and products from our Festival vendors to meals at local restaurants and much more. Perhaps our most spectacular silent auction item comes from Baja Expeditions a four-night Mexican whale-watching package for two, to observe and probably touch/pet the so-called "friendly whales" of San Ignacio Lagoon in the Cabana Camp in Baja, California. Note: You provide transportation to/from the Lagoon, but the package covers everything else, including lodging, meals, whale-watching, etc. In this accompanying picture, that's my sister's hand petting a friendly whale. If you'd like to find out more about the whale package, or other items--OR if you'd like to donate an item, and receive various types of publicity for doing so--please e-mail [email protected].
Don't Miss The Opportunity To Table Or Be A Vendor
The Festival will feature vendors & tablers of all stripes, as it were. But space is filling up fast, and even last year--our first--we were placed in the unenviable position of turning away vendor applicants because we'd reached capacity. We do anticipate hitting capacity--being "sold out," in a sense-- well prior to April 3. So we urge you not to delay in submitting your application.
To download an application and see related information, simply scroll down this page to just under the big Talking Animals Festival logo.
Veterinarian Dr. Jeanne Hart, who operates Tampa Mobile Veterinary Services, will be offering "Healthy Weight Check-Ups" at the Festival. These FREE exams will involve weighing family pets that Fest attendees bring, assigning a body condition score, taking the blood pressure, and giving the pet's human a handout with the animal's information. The chief goal is to educate folks about the importance of their animals maintaining a lean body weight and good nutrition. This represents a new feature of the Fest.
FREE KIDS YOGA CLASSES
Suzanne Liggett, of Heart&Soles Yoga and Education Services, will be providing four FREE 20-30 minute yoga classes for kids--though, as she notes, parents and caregivers are welcome to join in--spread out over the day. Suzanne will provide mats for at least 15 people per class, and if there ends up being more students than mats, others can join in on the grass. This too is a new feature of the Talking Animals Festival, though directly lifted from Tampa Bay Veg Fest.
At the Talking Animals Festival, the free kids yoga classes will be offered at 11:30am, 1:30pm, 2:30pm and 3:30pm.
NEW FESTIVAL POSTER--YOU CAN DOWNLOAD HERE!
Courtesy of artist extraordinaire Mike Beardsley, the poster for the 2011 Talking Animals Festival is now completed--and fantastic. To see what the poster looks like, simply scroll down. If you'd like to download the poster--perhaps to print some copies and distribute at your neighborhood pet-friendly restaurants, coffee shops & other businesses, dog parks, events, etc--you can click here. Thank you, and big, big thanks to Mike Beardsley & his animal-loving colleagues at ChappellRoberts.
THIS YEAR'S FESTIVAL HOURS CHANGE, EXPAND; FEES UNCHANGED
A handful of people, in observing that the hours of the forthcoming Festival are 10am to 4pm, have pointed out that not only are those hours different from last year's (noon-5pm), but an hour longer--and seem to appreciate that the tabler/vendor fees remain the same as last year's, provided those folks agree to park in the northwest parking lot.
$10 MICROCHIPPING RETURNS!
We're delighted to report that--as they did at the inaugural Fest--the Animal Coalition of Tampa (ACT) will again provide $10 microchipping at the Talking Animals Festival, for as long as the chips last. This was an enormously
popular component of the first Fest, and no wonder: People seeking to get their cat or dog microchipped at a veterinarian's office
might expect to pay $50-$60, or more.
In the wake of the success of the inaugural Talking Animals Festival--a WMNF event--we are gearing up to produce the second Talking Animals Festival, which will again include a multiple-hour, multiple-act concert of bands performing animal songs...tables where animal groups & other non-profits can provide outreach, and vendors or artists can sell pet products or animal-oriented items, services & artwork...delicious vegetarian & vegan food...pet adoption...raffle & silent auction...speakers, contests, exhibitions & more!
This is a FREE event, and all are invited, including dogs on leashes!
If you're part of a non-profit group that would like to table at the Talking Animals Festival, please download the application form here, complete and submit to WMNF.
If you have a pet business, sell animal-oriented products or services, are an artist--or otherwise would like to be a vendor at the Talking Animals Festival--please download this application form, complete and submit to WMNF.
Whichever category you're in, you'll see that the fees have not been increased from those of the first Festival--provided you park in the designated parking lot. We had such a big turnout for our debut Talking Animals Festival that between Festival attendance & Zoo attendance, there were a few points in the day when we experienced a real parking crunch, and newly arriving Festival attendees couldn't find parking spaces.
A huge turnout for a first-time event is the proverbial good problem to have, but in consultation with the City, we've taken a few steps to mitigate the parking problem for the 2nd Festival, and one of those steps is offering our vendors, artists, tablers & others a reduced fee (i.e., the same as last year's) if they park off site, in our designated parking lot, freeing up more parking space at or near Lowry Park. Thank you.
To find out more about the adoption component, sponsorship possibilities, volunteer opportunities, or other aspects of the Festival--including if you're interested in becoming a food vendor--please e-mail us at [email protected]. Thanks.
