LAKELAND — Family and friends came together to taste good food, shop from area vendors and listen to music during the 40th Annual Flatlanders Fall Frolic Saturday.

As people walked through the grounds, they could purchase a variety of homemade arts and crafts. Jewelry, handbags, wooden furniture, blankets, hand-painted mailboxes, local honey and artwork were some of what the show had to offer.

Children were entertained by playing games, going in the jump house, riding ponies and more.

Alisha Sirman of Lakeland came with her sister Courtney and her daughter Carlileigh to enjoy a funnel cake together.

“My daughter likes the funnel cakes,” she said. “That’s all I’ve heard about all week.”

Alisha was looking to purchase a mailbox while also checking out other vendors.

“You always find something different when you come out here,” she said.

Kayla Reynolds of Ray City and her daughter Macy, 3, also came to the festival to have a funnel cake.

“We come every year,” Reynolds said. “(We) just like looking around at the different vendors.”

Onion rings, fried sweet potatoes, kettle corn, jumbo shrimp, fried green tomatoes and more foods were available.

Chris Proctor of Moultrie has been a part of the festival for 20 years, selling alligator kabobs.

Participating in the event, he enjoys his hobby of cooking on the weekends.

“There’s plenty of food vendors out here, plenty of arts and crafts out here,” he said. “(I enjoy) meeting the people (and seeing) the different responses you get from people trying gator.”

Proctor sells his food at other festivals, attending roughly 40 a year in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and North Carolina.  

“I’ve got people who come back every year,” he said.

A first timer to the festival, Clint Jackson, of Valdosta, looked forward to eating gator tail.

“That one right there (Chris Proctor’s alligator) is particularly good,” he said.

Jackson also attended to see what the area vendors had to offer.

For the past 30 years, Ricky and Shirley Pearson of Nashville have attended the Flatlanders festival, selling leather belts, leather wallets and belt buckles.

“This was the first craft show we ever did,” Ricky said. “We raised our family here and everything at these festivals.”

The Pearsons enjoy being a part of the event because they can visit with the community and provide a homemade product. The belts are their best sellers and can be personalized.

“Regulars come back out (every year),” Shirley said. “It’s kind of laid-back, kind of a hometown gathering really.”

Ricky only sells his product at festivals, attending about 25 every year.

For the past three years, Duane Stokes Biguns and his wife, Rhonda, have attended the festival to sell homemade jelly and relish.

“We just enjoy sitting here and talking to folks and just meeting people,” Duane said.

The couple owns Bigun’s Homemade Jelly and Relish and participates in area festivals during the fall.

Retiring three years ago, Duane wanted to keep busy and decided to start making his own jelly and relish for the public.

“(Now) I just sit and think up jellies to sell,” he said. “My favorite is blackberry.”

Muscadine jelly is one of his popular products.

The couple live in Lakeland, where Duane grows and sells vegetables.

Connie Fleetwood, with Travel Treasures, sells collectibles, such as glassware and jewelry.   During the summer she visited the New England area and traveled West buying items to bring back to sell at festivals.

“I travel to get good deals so I can come back here and give good deals,” she said. “It’s also an excuse to travel.”

From Moultrie, Fleetwood and her husband, Mark, stay in the area to attend festivals in the fall.

“We enjoy doing it and meeting with people,” she said. “We come back here and we have fun with it.”

Sheila Williams of Douglas sells dichroic glass jewelry and hand-painted glass items, such as wine glasses, salt and pepper shakers, windows and night lights.

“Hummingbird feeders, they’re really our best sellers,” she said.

Painting for about 10 years, Williams began making dichroic glass jewelry a couple years ago.

“It’s (painting) a stress release, it’s an outlet,” she said. “Painting is just a way to be creative.”

Willams and her husband, Larry, own Designs by Sheila and have been attending craft shows for roughly 30 years.

Returning after 10 years, Ben Delacruz sold homemade wooden products, such as statues and figurines.

For 40 years he has been designing the wooden art, a skill passed down by his great grandfather. While the smaller items do not take long to make, some of the larger items can take a long time, he said.

“It runs in the family,” he said.

From Athens, Delacruz enjoys attending events in South Georgia during the fall.

“I just want to see again old vendors,” he said.

Delacruz mostly travels to North Carolina, North Georgia and Tennessee to sell his items to the public.

Local bee keeper Raynae Williams, with Georgia Bee Pretty of Stockton, sells raw honey and beeswax candles.

“It’s fun to come home and promote a local product and local business,” she said.

Williams also looks forward to seeing and catching up with people she has not seen in awhile.

Henry Jowers of Valdosta used to “dabble in bees” in the past, he said, as he looked at the raw honey Williams had made. He was enjoying his time at the annual festival.

“I think the weather is beautiful, the boiled peanuts are good and the people are good,” Jowers said.

The Flatlanders Fall Frolic festival was sponsored by the Lakeland-Lanier County Chamber of Commerce.