Paragon Festival Brings Seafood & Music to St. Pete

By: Mila Cordeiro

TAMPA – The first weekend of February was Paragon Festival’s second annual seafood and music festival down in St. Petersburg, Florida.

The festival comprises a multitude of seafood options from crab hushpuppies and alligator sandwiches to seafood boils. Vendors from all over Florida come to the Paragon Festivals to share their art and seafood with those who attend.

“What started as a fine arts festival branched out into seafood and music,” said Kelly Baker, event manager at Paragon Art Festivals.

Bill Kinney, owner and founder of Paragon Arts Festivals, originally began with four festivals during the year of 2017. In 2018, that total expanded to 11 festivals. This year’s event took place on the cross section of Corey Avenue and Blind Pass Road.

“There’s not a lot of market share for these events,” said Baker. “One thing I’ve noticed is that a lot of the cities are asking Bill to come to them, which really shows his skill as a businessman.”

Paragon hosts its events based on locations that filter in large audiences. Hosting festivals in heavily populated areas spreads word of local artists, local food vendors and food trucks.

“Set up typically takes place at 6 a.m. on a Friday,” said Baker. “Set up usually takes all day in order to be ready by Saturday morning.”

Upscale vendors all over Florida enter in their art and dishes to become a part of the festivities. Vendors go through a selective process through Kinney and Jaimee Whitcher, office administrator of Paragon Festivals.

“We typically get a pretty large crowd out here,” said Baker. “Lots of people show up, but it’s always been a fun crowd, nothing every rowdy.”

The festival uses what is known as “food tickets” in order to buy food from any of the food vendors. This process allows Paragon Festivals to keep track of price total. Vendors keep 75 percent of their earnings, while Paragon will receive the latter part.

“Not only do tickets help us keep track of the money that’s trafficked in,” said Baker “But it also keeps the lines moving faster to avoid too much of a crowd.”

The festival is sponsored by many companies such as Kitchen craft, Budweiser, Jaguar and Bentley of Tampa Bay to name a few. This year’s biggest sponsor is Sprint.

Paragon will be hosting another festival in St. Pete Beach during the month of March and another festival in the Tampa Bay area during the month of April. Almost all of the Paragon Festivals are placed near beach locations.

“This is our second festival here in St. Pete,” said Baker. “We had another one this past winter and will be having a second seafood festival this upcoming spring.”

Paragon will also be hosting spring fine arts festivals in different cities across Florida. Paragon’s past festivals include not only seafood and music festivals but also, fine arts festivals and a holiday of the arts festival during the winter season.

For more information about the seafood and music festivals, you can visit the website www.seafoodfestivals.com or for more information about Paragon Festivals, you can visit their website at www.paragonevents.com