CELEBRATIONS
Trabulsy, a vice president of Southern Eagle. “And once it
caught on, it was something everyone planned on doing on
the first Friday of the month.”
Kindred, who came up with the idea in 1989 after seeing
Orlando’s successful street festivals, was Main Street of Fort
Pierce’s first manager. He invented Friday Fest and ran it
from 1989 until he left Main Street in 1991.
“We’ve come a long, long, long way from those early
days,” he said. “It went from a few people to thousands
MAIN STREET FORT PIERCE PHOTO
Friday Fest started as a small monthly gathering 20 years ago in front of PJ Clark’s on
North Second Street.
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of people coming downtown for it. Once it
started to become successful there were people who
wanted us to do it every week. But we were afraid
we’d burn it out, so we stuck to our vision.”
Friday Fest moved from North Second Street to
South Second Street where the festival organizers
could use the Sunrise Theatre building for storing
supplies before the theater was restored.
Linette Trabulsy ran Friday Fest for five years
after Doris Tillman became Main Street’s new manager
when Kindred left. Pam Gillette is the current
Friday Fest manager.
“There was an explosion of growth in Fort Pierce
and the county, and the event kept growing,” Linette
Trabulsy said. “Friday Fest was moved to Melody
Lane and the Marina Square Park when the Sunrise
was being renovated. For a while we thought it
might go back to Second Street but it had grown
too much.”
Today, the Indian River forms a peaceful backdrop
for the bustling 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. festival on the
first Friday of each month. Vendors line up on both sides of
Melody Lane, a band plays, the street and the park fill with
people, and everyone socializes and enjoys a few hours of
relaxation.
Crowds average 5,000 per event but have gone as high as
6,000, said Doris Tillman.
“One thing that is the most important about Friday Fest,”
Tillman said, “is that it turned out to be one of the most
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