CEO Chatter with Jack Lighton
Dear Friends of LMC:
Extra, Extra – Read All About It!
LMC’s 15th Annual TurtleFest returns Saturday, March 24! This fun, FREE, family-oriented event offers something for everyone. This year’s theme is, “Together We Can,” which celebrates LMC’s local and global conservation vision.
What is TurtleFest? This day-long event encompasses the entire Loggerhead Park and is our thank you celebration for the community’s unwavering support of our mission to conserve sea turtles, our ocean and our beaches.
TurtleFest employs some of the most unique conservation perspectives to ensure our event has a minimal impact on our environment:
- No plastic water bottles are sold, but filtered chilled water stations are available
- Bike or walk, back by popular demand is our Bike Valet
- No plastic bags are given out! Reusable bags only!
Do you love live music as much as we do? If so, you will love the focal point of our festival – our live music stage, presented by Tire Kingdom. Guests will enjoy performances from excellent bands, and the fun live music will serve as a great backdrop to celebrate our mission of ocean and sea turtle conservation.
TurtleFest offers many wonderful elements for our guests to enjoy. Kids will be able to play festival games, soar on the sky slide, learn about conservation through interactive hands-on art projects and much, much more!
Bring your appetite! Guests of all ages will enjoy excellent food and refreshments while at TurtleFest.
Shop til’ you drop at our beautiful merchants’ shopping village, showcasing many wonderful local vendors and artists.
Help us conserve – take a pledge! Pledge to do your part for ocean conservation while at TurtleFest, snap a photo with our cool pledge signs and be sure to share your photos with us on social media. Don’t forget: #PlasticFreewithLMC
Parking for this free event is kindly provided by FPL with shuttle buses running continuously all day. Please be on the lookout for parking signs directing you to FPL’s Juno Beach headquarters. As TurtleFest is hosted outdoors, be ready for everything Mother Nature may have in store for us.
Most importantly, be prepared to have a great time with us! We are so grateful for your support of our mission, and we look forward to visiting with you at TurtleFest!
With Gratitude,
Jack E. Lighton
Food & Drinks
Food – You won’t go hungry at TurtleFest if you stop by Food Row! In alignment with our mission, we have required all vendors to commit to conservation by eliminating the use of single-use plastics and providing compostable cutlery and plates. Festival food options include salads, sandwiches, tacos, gyros, chicken, desserts and more!
Drinks – Stop by the beer tent to see Lagunitas for an ice cold beer. To eliminate the use of plastic at TurtleFest, we will include a metal cup with your first beer ($8.) After your first, all beers will be $6. Also enjoy our refreshing signature drinks: Turtle daiquiris, mojitos, margaritas and Moscow mules.
Music
All day long, enjoy a steady stream of live music! From steel drums to coastal reggae, there’s something for everyone. View the entire talent lineup below:
Main Stage
- (10:15-10:45 a.m.)
- Maltz Jupiter Theatre: (11-11:30 a.m.)
- Del Pelson: (11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.) Del Pelson is a five-piece alternative pop group based out of South Florida, combining catchy indie-pop melodies with the power of alternative rock.
- The Helmsmen: (1-2:30 p.m.) Not one genre could adequately define their sound; a uniquely South-Floridian amalgam of indie, rock, surf and folk music.
- Bryce Allyn Band: (2:45-4:15 p.m.) Insightful lyrics alongside a passionate delivery have garnered his fans acceptance better than any South Florida artist to date.
- Surfer Blood: (4:30-6 p.m.) West Palm Beach’s own Surfer Blood fuses sunny surf rock charm with indie rock cool.
Second Stage
- Albert Rodney Steel Band: (11 a.m.-3 p.m.) The band sings and performs on various instruments doing reggae, soca, jazz, pop, classical Hawaiian and African music.
- Franklin: Solo band acoustic (3 p.m. – 6 p.m.)
Seek Zero Pavilion and Social Media Lounge
Together, we can seek a zero-waste lifestyle and put an end to marine pollution. Learn how to live a zero waste lifestyle in our brand new conservation and media tent. Enter the tent by our Interactive Social Media Photo Booth, then make your way through the tent. Stop at different stations to learn about responsible angling, responsible boating, sea turtle-safe diving, monofilament recycling, marine pollution sorting and ways to improve the health of our oceans. In addition to interactive, zero-waste crafts, guests will be able to re-charge their phones and view live social media of the event in our Social Media Lounge.
Together, we can clean up our local beaches and create a safer nesting and hatching environment for sea turtles! Throughout the day we will have cleanup supplies available at the sorting station for any guest to use during TurtleFest. After you clean the beach, you can return the supplies along with the trash and receive a stamp that will give you a 25 percent discount on a TurtleFest reusable water bottle! Help us keep the very beach that our sea turtles call home free from trash and litter.
Social Media Giveaways. Stop by our Social Media Lounge and Seek Zero Tent to take a photo at our pledge wall and vow to live out a conservation lifestyle. Every photo taken at our Interactive Social Media Photo Booth will be entered into win a conservation give away prize. Post the photo to your social media accounts, then watch as your post appears on the TV screens in our lounge! A few special prizes will be given out to guests who take a photo with Fletch and post it on social media. To enter, use our appropriate social media handle below and the hashtags #LoggerheadMarinelifeCenter #TurtleFest2018. (make sure you are public so we can see your post!)
Stay Hydrated – water refill station
Each year, an average of 38 billion water bottles are wasted each year. These plastic bottles break down into tiny pieces and float in currents for years, damaging the ecosystem from the bottom of the food chain up. Plastic pollution is a problem our sea turtle patients face in our hospital far too often. At TurtleFest, we will have the water refill stations for all TurtleFest guests to use. Please either bring your own bottle or purchase one at the event (for $6) or in our gift store. Support our efforts to reduce marine debris and better protect the ocean. Together, we can prevent plastic from entering our oceans.
Ways to Travel – Bike Valet & RIDESHARE
We are so excited to announce that our Bike Valet Station is back! We are encouraging attendees to ride their bikes to TurtleFest and park them at the free Bike Valet Station. Guests that valet a bike will receive 25 percent off of the purchase of a refillable water bottle. To further reduce our carbon footprint, we encourage all attendees to participate in rideshare opportunities, such as sharing an Uber or Lyft, or carpooling. For parking information, please click here.
TurtleFest Merchandise
Together, we can spread sea turtle conservation awareness and provide rehabilitation care to sick or injured sea turtles! Each year, our gift store celebrates TurtleFest by creating special edition merchandise. All proceeds are put directly back into the Center to help provide care for our sea turtle patients and funding for our educational programs. TurtleFest merchandise will be sold on our e-store and in our gift store.
Shop Til you drop
Support local artists and merchants! Be sure to stop by our vendor shopping area, featuring many local artists and merchants committed to ocean conservation. As another way to reduce your carbon footprint, be sure to bring a reusable bag to carry your purchases in! You can also purchase a reusable bag at LMC’s merchandise booth! We have a great selection of vendors attending TurtleFest 2018, where there will be a variety of items sold including artwork, apparel, household items, decorations and more.
Kids’ Corner
TurtleFest 2018 is a kid-friendly event with many activities to keep your hatchlings entertained!
PNC Grow Up Great Lagoon (Ages 0–5:) Will feature puppet story time, a play area, ocean ambassador pledges, recycled crafts and face painting located indoors in our campus’ Learning Center.
Do Your Part: Science & Art Village (All ages:) Will feature art projects, science experiments, a beautiful mosaic made from plastic ocean pollution, and vegetable seeds you can take home with you.
MAscot Corner: TUrtleFest
Hello friends,
Fletch here, the lovable and huggable mascot for the Loggerhead Marinelife Center. Do you know what’s special about Saturday, March 24 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at LMC? It’s TurtleFest 2018, a day of family fun, fun, fun and more fun! So what are you waiting for? Make your plans today to bring the family to TurtleFest for a day of live music, games, food and a visit with our sea turtle patients.
Fletch will be at Turtlefest, so “find me if you can” and say “Hello Fletch,” to receive a gift!
See you at Turtlefest 2018!
Program Discounts
Stop by our SWIM and summer camp booths to register with our one day only discount! Sign-up for SWIM, the trip of a lifetime to save $200 on the registration price. Sign up your child for camp and receive the early bird pricing that ended Feb. 28. Pricing is found at: marinelife.org/camp. Don’t miss out on these great deals!
Free Admission to TurtleFest 2018 is Courtesy of the Event’s Presenting Sponsors
A special thank you to all of our sponsors for making TurtleFest our best event yet! Together, we can increase awareness of sea turtle and ocean conservation.
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