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Highlands Today

Larger crowd came to Caladium Festival this year

Gary Pinnell/Highlands Today

Lew and Mary Lou Luce of Apollo Beach carried off one of the thousands of pots sold during the 19th annual Caladium Festival.

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By Gary Pinnell | Highlands Today

Published: August 31, 2009

LAKE PLACID - Last year, says Terri Cantwell, workers at the Bates Sons & Daughters booth stood around, waiting for customers.

This year, it was a different story. Bates potted 3,000 caladiums, and Cantwell estimated that by 2 p.m. Saturday, a third of her stock was sold.

"Friday was twice as busy as last year," Cantwell said.

The recession is worse this year than last year. So why are there more customers?

Lake Placid Chamber of Commerce CEO Eileen May wasn't sure, but she was thrilled that this year attracted one of the best crowds ever.

It's a free festival though, with no admission, no parking fee and it's family oriented.

"We sold all the bus tours by noon. Annett added more, and they've sold all those," May said.
Another statistic: there were 130 vehicles registered for the car show in 2008, but 164 this year.

The only negative is that some of the merchants, guessing that 10 percent unemployment would produce smaller crowds, didn't bring as much merchandise. Even so, the booths were overflowing at times with customers.

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