Category Archives: Festival

WWALS Booth at Wild Azalea Festival, White Springs, FL 2019-03-16

This festival is new to WWALS, with music and dance, arts and crafts, foods and contests in historic White Springs, Florida. You can volunteer to help WWALS talk about our outings and advocacy, including, yes, Valdosta wastewater, plus the Second Annual Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest coming up in August. We’ll have the froggy toss game, the EnviroScape, and a kayak raffle.

Wild Azalea Festival logo

When: 10AM-4PM, Saturday, March 16, 2019

Where: Downtown Streets, White Springs, FL 32096

Event: facebook by the festival, meetup

What: “Come out for music and dance by Florida entertainers, arts and crafts, regional foods, contests and other outdoor activities. Visitors can also purchase azaleas and other local plants to take home.”

For more WWALS events and outings, see Continue reading →

WWALS booth at Azalea Festival, Valdosta, GA 2019-03-09-10

Update 2019-03-20: Pictures.

Come help WWALS celebrate spring with 30,000 of our south Georgia and north Florida friends, at the Azalea Festival in Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia. We will have information about our outings and advocacy (yes, including Valdosta wastewater), and pictures for sale Gretchen took of our rivers, plus a kayak raffle.

When: 10AM-6PM Saturday 9 March 2019
10AM-5PM Sunday 10 March 2019

Volunteer: WWALS members can help at the table!

Where: Drexel Park
30.846771, -83.285066
Patterson at W. Brookwood Drive, Valdosta, GA
(across Patterson from VSU)
That’s on One Mile Branch, which flows into Sugar Creek, then the Withlacoochee River, the Suwannee, to the Gulf.
Drexel Park is upstream of Wainwright Drive, where WWALS did a cleanup in November 2017, and Valdosta spilled 218,075 gallons of raw sewage. You can help with cleanups or water quality testing.

Event: facebook, meetup

Shirley, Gretchen, pictures are a hit, Volunteers
Photo: John S. Quarterman, of Shirley Kokidko and Gretchen Quarterman at Azalea Festival 2018.

What: Our Story, Azalea Festival,

Approximately 30,000 attendees from all over the Southeast come to Valdosta to enjoy Continue reading →

Second Annual Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest 2019-08-24

Update 2019-07-10: Tickets, Georgia Beer Company sponsors, judges selected, and headliners will perform. Everything about the contest is online here: wwals.net/pictures/2019-08-24–suwannee-riverkeeper-songwriting-contest/

Update 2019-04-01: Song submissions are open!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Hahira, Georgia, February 27, 2019 — WWALS is pleased to announce the M.C. for the Second Annual Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest will be well-known radio host Chris Beckham. Once again, the Contest will be at The Salty Snapper on Gornto Road in Valdosta, Georgia. This year it will be 1-5PM, Saturday, August 24, 2019. Submissions will open in April, for selection of half a dozen finalists by the Contest Committee, and judging of the finalists by three judges at the Contest.

Emmett Carlisle performing at the 2018 Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest
Emmett Carlisle performing at the 2018 Contest.

“August is an excellent month for this Contest, because we have inside air conditioning, and there are no competing outdoor music events in August,” said Laura D’Alisera, last year’s winner, and this year a member of the Contest Committee.

“The Salty Snapper is great for music: cozy but lots of space. Thanks to manager Justin Stephens for his enthusiastic support,” said Scotti Jay, Chair of the WWALS Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest Committee.

“Everybody had a fine time last year, and we have six more songs about the Suwannee River, or its tributaries the Withlacoochee, Little, and Alapaha. Move over Stephen C. Foster!” said Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman.

Submissions can be songs about Continue reading →

Fine Craft and Arts Festival by Jefferson Arts Gallery, Monticello, FL 2018-11-17

Venturing outside our watersheds, but still inside the territory of the Suwannee River Water Management District, the WWALS booth goes to Monticello, Florida, this Saturday. Come on over!

When: 10AM-4PM, Saturday, November 17, 2018

Where: Jefferson Arts Gallery, 575 W. Washington Street, Monticello, FL

Event: facebook, meetup

Listing in the Tallahassee Democrat: Continue reading →

Alapaha Station Celebration 2018-11-10

Update 2019-10-24: pictures.

Join us at the WWALS booth for fun, food, and a parade at the Alapaha Station Celebration, this Saturday, November 10, 2018, for the firth year running.

When: 9AM – 5PM, Saturday, November 10, 2017

Where: Alapaha Station, 245 NE Railroad St, Alapaha, Georgia

Event: facebook

[Dave Hetzel and people]
Dave Hetzel and people; pictures by Gretchen Quarterman for WWALS at Alapaha Station Celebration 2017-11-11.

The station is only a few miles from Continue reading →

Pictures: Alapaha Station Celebration 2017-11-11

Fun last year at the Alapaha Station Celebration, coming up again tomorrow.

[Shirley Kokidko]
Shirley Kokidko; pictures by Gretchen Quarterman for WWALS.

There are many more pictures on the WWALS website.

More: For more WWALS outings and events as they are posted, see Continue reading →

WWALS at Brooks County Skillet Festival 2018-10-20

The WWALS booth will be back in Quitman, Georgia, this Saturday at the Skillet Festival, with buttons and stickers (WWALS, Suwannee Riverkeeper, Water Trails, Water Is Life) and the raffle kayak.

When: 9AM-3:30 PM, Saturday, October 20, 2017

Where: Brooks County Courthouse, 100 Screven Street, Quitman, Georgia 31643

What: Brooks County Skillet Festival, quilts, cooking, vegetable market, fashion, dogs, clogging, skillet toss, race, and parade

Event: facebook

Skillet raffle on inward side, WWALS booth
WWALS at the Skillet Festival in 2017.

More: For more WWALS outings and events Continue reading →

Pictures, Hahira Honeybee Saturday 2018-10-06

Best parade ever! Saturday noon at the Hahira Honeybee Festival:

by Allison B. Freeman, Parade
Photo: Allison B. Freeman

We had quite a crew this time: Continue reading →

Pictures, Hahira Honeybee Friday 2018-10-05

Gretchen and Dave and me had a fine time Friday at the Hahira Honeybee Festival. Families really like the EnviroScape. Come on down today and see Bobby and the McKenzie clan march in the parade with Suwannee Riverkeeper!

Family, Enviroscape, Gretchen, Enviroscape
Family, Enviroscape, Gretchen Quarterman

Thanks for the donation of the EnviroScape, Continue reading →

Cancelled: Alapaha Quest, 2018-10-06

Due to low water in the Alapaha River, this outing is cancelled. Also, this is the same weekend as the Hahira Honeybee Festival, which takes a lot of WWALS resources; please come join us there.

Lots of people, Parade

Plus we’re doing a Cleanup at Troupville Boat Ramp on the Little River, Saturday, October 13, and the WWALS Boomerang on the Withlacoochee River from Langdale Park down to Sugar Creek and back, Saturday, November 3, and a paddle in the Okefenokee Swamp Saturday, December 8, 2018. Plus numerous festivals.

Next year the BIG Little River Paddle Race will be Saturday, April 27, 2019 at Reed Bingham State Park, and Paddle Georgia is starting at Troupville Boat Ramp for five days down the Withlaoochee and Suwannee Rivers in June 2019.

For more WWALS outings and events as they are posted, see the WWALS calendar or the WWALS outings and events web page. WWALS members also get an upcoming list in the Tannin Times newsletter.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!

Continue reading →