PLANT CITY — Miami has a giant orange, Sarasota a giant pineapple and Plant City, has what else? A giant strawberry.
New Year’s Eve marks the second annual Strawberry Drop in historic downtown Plant City.
“It was a funny thing, I was actually sitting at my house on New Year’s Eve and realized we didn’t have anything going on and I just had that light bulb moment, and thought, we are the Winter Capital, the Strawberry Capital, why not drop a strawberry,” said Dawn Hyatt, executive director of Plant City Main Street.
The event includes food, music, vendors and games. It’s the biggest fundraiser of the year for Plant City Main Street.
“We were expecting a couple thousand people, didn’t know we were going to end up with 11,000 here at the whole event, so it was a wonderful surprise,” said Hyatt reflecting on last year’s success.
However, there’s no doubt, the highlight of the night is the six-foot-tall strawberry hanging 80 feet in the air above downtown. From the 5,500 lights to the metal frame, it’s all made locally in Plant City, thanks to companies like BerryProduction and Metals & Nature.
“Once you hit that 10 seconds, you’ll get the countdown just like the ball in New York, 10 down to one and happy New Year 2026,” said Hyatt.
BerryProduction owner Bob McDowell, who is also an actual strawberry farmer, is responsible for the lighting.
“We can do images, and texts, and lettering and different types of shapes and stuff, but you’ll have to come out midnight New Year’s and check it out and see what actually does happen,” said McDowell.
Dawn and Bob say it’s awesome to have another truly unique Plant City event that the community can call their own.
“I’m hoping it will be even better than last year, last year it was just intense, so many people there, it was just a downtown party, nice to see our community come alive like it did, had never seen that before,” said Hyatt.
The festivities all begin at 7 p.m. New Year’s Eve with the drop taking place at midnight. Admission is free.
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