ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — The Shopapalooza Festival is in full swing at Vinoy Park in St. Petersburg.
“We’re trying something brand new,” Churned Ice Cream co-owner Ray Wyatt said. “We’re calling it the ‘Sunday Palooza.'”
“It’s a homemade custard ice cream shaped into a large ball,” he continued.
They offered customers 15 different toppings like M&M’s, toasted marshmallows, and of course a cherry on top.
“Shopapalooza is one of the biggest venue events in the US,” Churned Ice Cream’s co-owner, Alyssa Wyatt, said. “To be here showing what we do on a daily basis to the community around us, it’s pretty amazing.”
The event features everything from food to plants.
Susie Going owns ‘Oh For Succ’s Sake,’ Succ’s as in succulents.
She tells 8 On Your Side this is the biggest event of the year for her small business explaining how Shopapalooza puts money back into our local economy.
“You can help out a baseball team, or you can do things in your local community that actually have an effect,” Going said. “Large businesses, Amazon, big box stores, you’re just making some rich guy on a hill richer.”
From pizza cones to jewelry over 350 vendors fill Vinoy Park, each a small business right here in the Tampa Bay Area.
“We’re utilizing trees that fell in this town and this city and we manufacture these things from it, Bear Creek Custom Timber owner Mark James said showcasing his items for sale.
He displayed guitars, cutting boards, and even wood pieces that featured colorful epoxy designs.
That’s the unique experience customers get when shopping small, and in turn, pouring their money back into their own community.
“It’s very very important to us as a small business to be able to make these kinds of sales at events like this because it keeps all the money in the city and the community,” he said. “It doesn’t go to a big box store that are often times in another state or country.”
“This helps our local economy fantastically,” he continued.
For more details on the event, click here.
