Championship Rodeo Returns to Fair

The dirt will be flying as cowboys and cowgirls ride again at the Fourth Annual Pasco County Fair Rodeo on Friday, Feb. 20 and Saturday, Feb. 21 at the Pasco County Fairgrounds in Dade City. Admission to the rodeo is free with admission to the 62nd Annual Pasco County Fair, which runs from Feb. 16 to Feb. 22. The fair offers something for everyone, including arts and crafts, beauty pageants, livestock shows, entertainment, great food and, of course, the famous midway rides.

Here's the complete scoop on the rodeo from the fair website, along with some great photos:

Friday night's rodeo is being billed as "Tough Enough to Wear Pink" night in support of breast cancer awareness. Charlie Lowery of 4-L Rodeo will bring his top rodeo stock to challenge professional rodeo riders in performances that are sure to excite audiences of all ages. Sanctioned by the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association and Professional Women's Barrel Racing, the rodeo will include the events of bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, team roping, calf roping, steer wrestling, bullriding, and barrel racing.

Junior barrel races will be open to local participants. The junior barrel races will follow the professional women's event. There will also be rodeo clowns and other specialty acts. For complete details on the rodeo and the fair, visit the fair site.

Time for Dade City's Annual Kumquat Festival

If you’ve always wanted to try the tiny citrus fruit called a kumquat, now is your chance. The Greater Dade City
Chamber of Commerce will host the 12th Annual Kumquat Festival in downtown Dade City on Saturday, Jan. 31.

The event celebrates the harvest of kumquats, a sweet and sour fruit that can be eaten skin and all but tastes best as part of a yummy kumquat pie. The festival is held in the heart of Dade City’s historic downtown and includes more than 200 arts and craft booths, live entertainment, a farmer’s market, wagon rides, antique fire trucks, a car and truck show, beauty contest and recipe contest.

For a full schedule of events, visit the festival site at
http://www.kumquatfestival.org/ or call the chamber at 352‐567‐3769. For a complete list of kumquat recipes, including kumquat pie and ice cream, visit www.kumquatgrowers.com/recipes.html

Also, if you are planning to attend the event, be sure to check out the great event rates at Hampton Inn Dade City.

Pasco Hosts Powerman Florida in San Antonio

It was a great day to run, bike and run some more through the hills of San Antonio on Saturday. More than 200 top athletes from around the United States and Canada and as far away as Denmark and South Africa participated in Powerman Florida, the sole qualifying event in Florida for the 2009 World Championship in Switzerland. Powerman returns to Florida after a hiatus of more than a decade. The event was co-sponsored by the Pasco County Sports Commission, Florida Sports Foundation and Exclusive Sports Marketing. Powerman is a grueling competition known as a duathlon: 8K (5 mile) run followed by a 53K (33 mile) bike race and another 8K (5 mile) run. The event also included a shorter Powerman Sprint, which covered half the distance of the main event.
Professional athletes were among the weekend competitors, including five-time Ironman champion Heather Gollnick, Powerman Malaysia champion Jason Spong and the reigning US Elite National Duathlon Champion, Anne Curi Preisig. To learn more about Powerman, visit http://www.powermanflorida.com/

Skydivers jump for Thanksgiving Boogie

More than 380 jumpers from 19 countries came to Zephyrhills last week for Sky Dive City's annual Thanksgiving Skydive Boogie. Although the numbers were down a bit this year, jumpers completed more than 4,000 successful skydives, according to manager T.K. Hayes. Skydive City is one of the world's premier drop zones and the Thanksgiving event has been going on for 40 years. Check out the full story at Zephyrhills News or find out more at the Skydive City site.
(photo courtesy of Zephyrhills News)

Thanksgiving Weekend Packed with Adventure

Not in the mood for the usual round of Thanksgiving Day parades and football? Want a little more action in your holiday weekend? Well, Thanksgiving is an action-packed time of year in Pasco County. Would you believe this area will host a sky diving extravaganza, cricket tournament, foxhunt AND an appearance by a NASCAR favorite all in one weekend? Check out the details below and have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

The Thanksgiving Sky Dive Boogie & Turkey Meet is a high-altitude tradition at Sky Dive City in Zephyrhills. Hundreds of the best jumpers from around the world come to east Pasco to compete for fun, prizes and the admiration of fellow jumpers. Spectators can enjoy the thrill of eight, ten and 16-man jump competitions, plus a traditional Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. The boogie actually started last week and continues through Sunday.

If race cars are more your style than jumping out of airplanes, consider the David Reutimann 4th Annual Charity Golf Tournament & Auction at Silverado Golf & Country Club in Zephyrhills. Reutimann is a Zephyrhills native and NASCAR favorite who hosts a cookout and auction of NASCAR and other sports team memorabilia to benefit a variety of Florida charities. The cookout and auction is Friday and the golf tournament is Saturday. For more information, call 813-788-1225.

Cricket is not a sport you hear too much about in the Tampa Bay area. But that could change as the Wesley Chapel Cricket Club has been generated a lot of buzz for the sport in recent months. The club will host its first Tampa Bay Thanksgiving Cricket Festival on Saturday and Sunday at Wesley Chapel District Park. Not sure what this bat-and-ball-style game is all about? Check out these articles on the club that appeared recently in the St. Petersburg Times and Tampa Tribune. Get full details on this weekend's tournament at the cricket club website or call 813-994-8481.

Finally, we might have to root for the fox in this one but a new event to this area is the opening meet of the South Creek Foxhounds at Little Everglades Ranch in Dade City on Saturday. South Creek Foxhounds is the oldest foxhunt in Florida and the sport itself dates back to the early 1800s in Great Britain and Canada. In today's version of the hunt, according to the club's website, the fox is not killed. Whew. For information on the club or this weekend's hunt, visit the club website.

Whether you make it to any of these events or not, you can stay on top of all the events in Pasco County throughout the year at our online Events Calendar and Sports Calendar.

Farmer's Market & Book Signings This Weekend

With cooler weather finally arriving, organizers of the successful Downtown Farmer's Market in New Port Richey are planning for even more vendors and cool activities this weekend.

In addition to the usual fresh produce, plants, herbs and teas, two local authors will sign their recently published works: Adam Carozza, author of Images of America - New Port Richey and Jim Rathbone, author of There's a Pirate in the Family. Also for sale will be Florida's Monuments & Memorials, a book that includes two New Port Richey sites, the George Sims Monument and the city's colorful downtown murals. For kids who wish to make their own Christmas gifts while their parents shop, a local church will offer arts and crafts activities.

Starting this weekend, the Saturday Farmer's Market moves to a new location, the newly renovated Railroad Square on Nebraska Avenue east of Grand Boulevard.

"The city did such a wonderful job beautifying Nebraska Avenue with Railroad Square, it made sense to put it to use,'' said Judy DeBella Thomas, executive director of Greater New Port Richey Main Street, which organizes the market.

For information on other downtown New Port Richey events, visit the Main Street website or call 727-842-8066. You can also check out the Pasco Tourism website and our Calendar of Events.

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VW Bugs Fill Pasco County Fairgrounds

There were bugs of every shape, size and color at the Pasco County Fairgrounds in Dade City this weekend. Not the creepy, crawly kind - the cool and fun Volkswagen kind! Organizers estimate there were nearly 500 VW bugs, campers, dunebuggies and buses exhibiting at the 20th Annual Pasco Bug Jam, one of the largest shows of its kind in the U.S. Visitors came from all over the country and as far away as the UK and Canada. It was a beautiful day and a fun event. Plus, all proceeds benefit All Children's Hospital. Cans of food were also collected for the Suncoast Harvest Food Bank. Check out these great photos from Pasco County's Kevin Jadick. To learn more about the Bug Jam, visit www.pascobugjam.com