{"id":65307,"date":"2026-04-30T21:15:48","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T01:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=65307"},"modified":"2026-04-30T21:15:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T01:15:54","slug":"florida-childrens-museum-is-hosting-its-4th-annual-watermelon-festival-this-saturday-may-2-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/04\/30\/florida-childrens-museum-is-hosting-its-4th-annual-watermelon-festival-this-saturday-may-2-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Children\u2019s Museum is hosting its 4th Annual Watermelon Festival this Saturday, May 2, 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Florida Children\u2019s Museum is hosting its 4th Annual Watermelon Festival<\/strong> this Saturday, May 2, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This “pay what you can” event celebrates Central Florida’s watermelon farming tradition with activities both inside the museum and outdoors on the Great Lawn at Bonnet Springs Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Event Details<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • When:<\/strong> Saturday, May 2, 2026<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Time:<\/strong> 10:00 a.m. \u2013 5:00 p.m.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Where:<\/strong> Florida Children\u2019s Museum & Bonnet Springs Park Great Lawn (600 Bonnet Springs Blvd, Lakeland)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Admission:<\/strong> Pay what you can (donations support museum operations and programming).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    What to Expect<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    The festival features a mix of indoor and outdoor activities for families:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    On the Great Lawn:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    • Inflatables provided by Lakeland Moonwalk.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • DJ and dancing.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Free watermelon slices (courtesy of Global Produce Sales).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Free hearing screenings in the Central Florida Speech and Hearing mobile unit.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Activities from over 20 community partners and businesses.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      Inside the Museum:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \n
      • 10:30 a.m. & 1:30 p.m.:<\/strong> Story Sprouts (The Watermelon Seed & Parachute Games).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • 10:30 a.m. & 3:30 p.m.:<\/strong> STEM Challenge (Watermelon Seed Catapults) and Mini Masterpieces (Watermelon Carving).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • 11:00 a.m. \u2013 2:00 p.m.:<\/strong> Face painting.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • 2:00 p.m. \u2013 4:00 p.m.:<\/strong> All Ages Afternoon in the SPLAT Studio.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • 3:45 p.m.:<\/strong> Movin’ and Groovin’.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

        Since much of the event takes place on the Great Lawn, it is recommended to bring sunscreen, comfortable shoes, and attire suitable for being outdoors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Florida Children\u2019s Museum is hosting its 4th Annual Watermelon Festival this Saturday, May 2, 2026. This “pay what you can” event celebrates Central Florida’s watermelon farming tradition with activities both… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"6","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDRcLzQ5MDE4NDEyNF85NzYwNTE0NTEzODQxMTFfNDI0MTg0ODY2OTMxMjg0NDc3MF9uLndlYnA_Zml0PTk2MCUyQzU0MCZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IkZsb3JpZGEgQ2hpbGRyZW5cdTIwMTlzIE11c2V1bSBpcyBob3N0aW5nIGl0cyA0dGggQW5udWFsIFdhdGVybWVsb24gRmVzdGl2YWwgdGhpcyBTYXR1cmRheSwgTWF5IDIsIDIwMjYiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.2Q9TTBHBiYCqvI2OX5FGviUOXkT2VpqVnZDGiG-SISgMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[13094,14507,14508],"class_list":["post-65307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-13094","tag-florida-childrens-museum-is-hosting-its-4th-annual-watermelon-festival-this-saturday","tag-may-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65307"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65309,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65307\/revisions\/65309"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}