PALATKA - The salty aroma of fresh seafood churned in the cool breeze blowing across the St. Johns River as children laughed and screamed out of joy or fear - and sometimes both - as carnival staff pushed mobile thrill rides to their limits.
About 40,000 people enjoyed the sunshine, vendors, entertainment and rows of seafood at the 23rd annual Blue Crab Festival in Palatka on Sunday.
The festival, which occurs on Memorial Day weekend every year and lasts Friday evening through Monday, offers something for everyone, said event chairwoman Carla Jayne Morris.
Free entry, entertainment, parking and affordable food helped make this particular Sunday one of the best the festival has seen in years, she said.
For $10, those in attendance could catch a quick glimpse of Palatka from a few hundred feet above the St. Johns River in a helicopter.
Five dollars bought a camel ride, with the option of choosing 7-year-old Joe or Lulabell, the 8-year-old camel.
The camels were introduced last year and are back by popular demand, Morris said.
"People flock down here to see the camels," she said.
The camels are the product of three generations of animal trainers. The Riders family, from Citra, have been training animal stars for decades.
The family has trained animal superstars that have appeared in movies such as "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective," "Evan Almighty" and the upcoming "Zookeeper," which features a camel named Shorty.
Entertainment wasn't limited to just kids.
For the older crowd, the Budweiser beer tent sold ice-cold brew all day while popular tribute bands played under the adjoining tent.
The live music tent kicked off Sunday's line-up with chef-hat-wielding Sauce Boss who not only fires up his guitar but also cooks his own special recipe gumbo on stage for audience members.
Popular tribute bands The Hendrix Experience and Led Head rocked the stage in the evening, with Motor City Josh headlining the stage at 10:30 p.m.
The International Paul Bunyan Lumberjack Show, new to the festival, showcased axe-throwing, chainsaw-wielding, log-rolling lumberjacks as they chopped, sawed and balanced on a floating log in a show of precision and brawn.
The show, led by Lee LeCaptain, has traveled across five continents to show off the skills of the lumberjacks tossing axes at a target, carving tiny chairs from a log using only a chainsaw, and carefully balancing themselves on a floating log while running in place as if from a cartoon.
The lumberjacks raced manpower against machine in an epic battle between a gas-powered chainsaw and the 60-tooth wood-eating beast known as a crosscut saw in which two men, one on each end of the saw, push and pull as the razor-sharp teeth rip through the tough cedar log.
The man-powered saw won the round with a time of only 34 seconds to cut through the roughly 12-inch log.
But people like Ron Ruggles and Marianne Ferrara, of Orlando, didn't drive all the way up to Palatka for the entertainment.
Instead, they drove up for the thing the event is named for - the food.
"We wanted to get up to our elbows in blue crab," Ruggles said.
About 40 food vendors were on hand to serve up a hefty menu of crawfish, alligator, fish, traditional grease-pit fair food and several versions of blue crab.
Ferrara said her only complaint was that most of the downtown shops were closed.
"This may be the only reason I ever come to the town," she said as she broke apart another crab leg.
At the sight of Ferrara standing up from her shaded table next to the main entertainment stage and a mechanical bull,
Ruggles had only one thing to say: "More napkins honey, we're running out."
About 200 vendors gathered to sell a wide variety of items from hair accessories to custom-built cedar furniture.
Youth baseball teams came to sell snacks and drinks, eagerly awaiting donations to help buy equipment or travel to tournaments.
Michelle Rider, the arts and crafts coordinator, said the vendors, some of which will make upwards of $15,000 over the course of a weekend, are required to hand-craft most of what they sell.
Morris said the Palatka Chamber of Commerce estimates the festival to have a $4.2 million economic impact on the community.
"You can't get a motel room in Palatka," she said. "Last night you'd have to sleep in your car."
People have traveled from as far away as Texas for the blue crab, she said.
The festival closed Monday with a parade and memorial service for veterans, along with the Ducks for Bucks duck race.
The race proceeds benefit the Palatka New Vision Lion's Foundation.
The festival's turnaround, after nearly being axed last year due to a lack of funding has been a tremendous accomplishment for Morris and the nearly 75 volunteers it takes to host the festival, she said.
"Seeing the crowd - seeing everybody smiling and having a good time," she said, makes all of the hard work worth it."
