Loggerhead Marinelife Center’s TurtleFest 2019: Celebrating Oceans of Opportunity, now in its 16th year, welcomed more guests than ever before to Loggerhead Park in Juno Beach on Saturday, March 23.
As the Center has grown over the years, so has this free-admission, ocean conservation themed family-friendly event. This year, TurtleFest – Palm Beach County’s largest ocean conservation festival – had record-breaking attendance, with a 26 percent increase in visitors.
Guests enjoyed great live entertainment by Spred The Dub, Making Faces, Fireside Prophets, Andrew Morris Band, the Performing Arts Academy of Jupiter, and more, as well as up-close encounters with threatened and endangered sea turtles at LMC’s Outdoor Sea Turtle Hospital.
TurtleFest featured other ocean-friendly opportunities as well, including a bike valet to reduce CO2 emissions and crafts from recycled materials. Guests also perused and shopped to their hearts content at Vendor Row, which highlighted hand-crafted goods, local art and more.
Attendees also raced down a giant seaside slide, enjoyed fun conservation-themed educational activities for all ages, art, delicious food, craft beer and specialty drinks provided by Lagunitas.
Presenting Sponsors for this year’s event included FPL, Jupiter Medical Center, Tire Kingdom, 4ocean and G4S.
If you missed all the fun at TurtleFest this year, check out LMC’s other programming, including the new Sea Turtle Sleepover program for kids ages 8-12. LMC’s Sea Turtle Sleepover is an exclusive nighttime program that offers a tour of the Outdoor Sea Turtle Hospital, activities for aspiring scientists, movie time, snacks and pizza, and concludes with a little shuteye amongst the aquariums. The next Sea Turtle Sleepover will be Saturday, March 30.
View TurtleFest 2019 photos here.
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About Loggerhead Marinelife Center:
Loggerhead Marinelife Center (LMC) is a nonprofit sea turtle research, rehabilitation and educational institution that promotes conservation of ocean ecosystems with a focus on threatened and endangered sea turtles. The Center features an on-site hospital, research laboratory, educational exhibits and aquariums, and also operates the Juno Beach Pier, which hosts world-class angling and sightseeing. Situated on one of the world’s most important sea turtle nesting beaches, Loggerhead Marinelife Center is open daily and hosts over 350,000 guests free-of-charge each year. The Center’s conservation team works with 76 local and international organizations across six continents to form partnerships and share conservation initiatives and best practices that are core to its mission of ocean conservation. The Center is expanding and has launched its Waves of Progress capital expansion campaign, designed to accelerate and amplify LMC’s conservation and education impact. When complete, the facility will offer one of the world’s most advanced and unique experiences for guests and scientific partners. For more information, visit marinelife.org or call (561) 627-8280.