Steve Miller, executive director of the Lower Keys Chamber of Commerce, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM yesterday morning to talk about upcoming events.
The Island Art Fest is coming up at the end of November.
Miller said, “We’ve got a couple big things actually coming up. The Island Art Fest is always this first Saturday after Thanksgiving, and it’s really pretty cool, because it’s not really a themed event, and basically what we have is a lot of people, especially local people, that come out with just things that they make. It’s in perfect timing for Christmas, too. You’re going to get, like, really unique, one of a kind items. You’ll find them all over the place. Also, since it’s an event that doesn’t happen during season, your booth rental isn’t quite as high. So the vendors can get out there and actually get a pretty good deal on being able to get a booth. Now, this year, particularly, we never have any problem filling up with artists, because we will get quite a few. But food vendors, I love to hear from food vendors. We’d love to see some new ones out there. So if they could contact us, we’d love to talk to them, make them a deal, get them out there to where they could sell their wares, to the to the massive droves of people that come out. I think that people, a lot of times, they’re looking for things to just simply go out and do. You can go out on the water anytime and I’m not going to say anything bad about that, but, I mean, this is just a chance to get out, stretch your legs, walk around. We always have great musicians up on our stage, and we have fantastic food vendors, so you can come get yourself something to eat, listen to the music, walk around, check out all the cool stuff. It gets just like a perfect after opportunity. Now that’s come up in November 29.”
The Big Holiday Gala will be coming up on December 3.
Miller said, “We’re doing it again this year over at the Tennessee Williams theater out in the lobby. It’s a gorgeous venue. They make it look just beautiful for us, and we have it catered by the Marathon High School culinary team. Now these guys have won awards and, oh man, the food is just phenomenal. That’s also where we give out our awards for the small businesses and large business, the new business community spirit. This year, we’re going to be doing something different. We’re going to be emailing, sending out an email blast to all of our members asking you to help us pick who those people will be. We’ve done it as a board decision in the past, and it’s like, let’s ask the members, so we’re going to put it out to the members. That’s going to be coming out very soon. So keep your eyes out for it. We’re going to be asking you who you think should be the best small business, the best large business, the best new business and the community spirit award.”
On January 25, the 21st annual Big Pine Lower Keys Nautical Expo will take place.
Miller said, “I’ve got to tell you, in the Nautical Expo, we have less than 10 slots left and those are all for food vendors.”
The monthly get togethers at the Chamber are great for businesses.
Miller said, “Our next one of those is going to be coming up next Wednesday and it’ll be over at Artists in Paradise at the Winn Dixie Plaza in Big Pine. During these things every time, we have a 50/50 and we have a business card drawing and what we do is we take our half of the 50/50 every time and buy prizes for the next business card drawing. Well, Artists in Paradise got a hold of us this time. They said we want to go ahead and put out art to everybody, so we’re going to be giving away a lot of art. Now, what happens every time, too, is some of the attendees bring things to give out as well, like an insurance company or somebody or different businesses will bring things to give away as prizes. So I imagine we’ll still have some of those, but mainly it’s going to be a lot of art. Anybody can come. It’s free to get in. The only thing we ask is bring a business card so you can throw it in for the business card drawing.”
For more information, click here: https://lowerkeyschamber.com/