About this Event
Join us at the 38th annual CCC Festival! The park preserves wilderness, history and the legacy of the CCC and the festival celebrates history, culture, art, nature, music, sharing traditions and skills.
The festival is free with park admission except for tram, pony and carriage rides and food. Park entry fees apply $6 per vehicle (up to 8 people), $4 per single-occupant vehicle and $2 per bicyclist and pedestrian.
Follow the Friends of Highland Hammock on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/fhhsp) to learn about more activities and times.
Once details for the 2025 festival are confirmed, this information will be updated. Here's what happened at the festival in 2024:
• Enjoy Highlands Hammock State Park. With more rare and endemic species than any other Florida State Park; and, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Highlands Hammock is known for its magnificent hammock, the Civilian Conservation Corps Museum and other New Deal Era structures. It is a place where wilderness and history are preserved, where visitors may walk the trails where the Florida panther and black bear quietly pass beneath towering oaks, and where visitors to the CCC Museum experience the Great Depression.
Highlands Hammock State Park is home to the state of Florida’s Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Museum. The park is one of eight original parks built by the CCC in Florida. To help lift the United States out of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt established the CCC in 1933 as part of the New Deal Program. Single men between the ages of 18 and 25 could enlist in work programs to improve America’s public lands, forests and parks.
• Welcome & Introductions / Morgan Tyrone, Park Manager; Carla Sherwin, Park Services Specialist; David Schmidt, CCC Museum Curator; Josh Vaughn, Sebring High Band Director; Joy Loomis, Avon Park High Choir Director. 11 a.m. at the Music in the Park Stage
• Florida Author and Historian Dr. Gary Mormino: Ten Foods That Define Florida From Smoked Mullet to Key Lime Pie! Noon in the CCC Museum Stage
• Civilian Conservation Corps Museum Curator David Schmidt: Built By the CCC: America’s Greatest Parks. 1:30 in the CCC Museum Stage.
• Archaeologist John Goss: Prehistory of Indigenous Peoples of Central Florida. 2:30 p.m. in the CCC Museum Stage.
• Florida Highwaymen Artists Kelvin Hair and Richard Evans will exhibit and sell their paintings.
• Scott Teele and Frank Teele, award-winning blacksmiths with the Florida Artist Blacksmith Association, will demonstrate blacksmithing as they create a steel water lily table sculpture for the silent auction (3 p.m. in Panther Pavilion). One lucky bidder will take home at the end of the day.
• Enjoy music by Sebring High Jazz Band (10 to 11 a.m. and 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.) who will perform big band music from the 1930s and 1940s, Avon Park High School Show Choir (11:30 to Noon) and Heart of Highland Show Chorus (2 to 2:30 p.m. and 3 to 3:30 p.m.).
• Take a step back in time at the Cow Camp Reenactment by Lake Kissimmee State Park.
• Antique Car Show highlights exhibitors firing up old engines and a vintage tractor. An exhibit of International Harvester model ‘toy’ tractors dating from 1902 to the present will be on display. Children may play with some tractors. Young people can learn about hay baling, combines, corn pickers and the evolution of tractors for harvesting wheat during the last century.
• Guided, narrated 90-minute tram tours at 11 a.m., Noon, 1 p.m., 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. (if needed). Trams depart from the Hammock Inn, run along the Loop Road beneath the densely shaded hammock, pause on a wooden bridge within a cypress swamp, and continue through open pinelands. The tram returns along the South Canal through a wetland of bay and cypress trees where alligators, turtles, herons, ibis, egrets, and the occasional otter may be seen. Purchase tram tickets through the Hammock Inn concession, open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Ticket costs are $15 per adult and $10 for children six to 12 years old. Children aged five and younger are free. Purchase tickets on the day of the tour or one day in advance. Call the Hammock Inn at 863-402-0061.
• VIP Custom Carriage Ride / Karen Tyrrell and Lorna Doone, her Clydesdale mare, or Fallon, a Friesian Percheron draft horse. Cost: $10 per person. 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m.
• Arts and crafts vendors, heritage demonstrations and displays by government agencies and organizations concerned with local history or nature and the environment are ongoing. Learn more about quilting, spinning, pine needle basketry and more!
• Food and refreshments are available for purchase in the Hammock Inn Camp Store and onsite food vendors, including James Brown Famous Flames BBQ, Tacos and Salsas, Redneck Café and Pelican’s SnoBalls.
Children and young people may participate in several activities, including:
• 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Discovery Nature Walks for children 5 to 13 to explore and scavenge to learn about plants, animals, habitats, niches, food chains, animal adaptations and more! During the hour-long walk, children will discover adventures in nature and sharpen skills to explore nature in their own backyards. Led by Interpretive Volunteers Chris and Bob Wohlwend and Alice Oldford. Meet at Wild Orange Trail in the picnic area behind the Hammock Inn Camp Store. Dress in long pants, protective clothing and shoes (no flip-flops or sandals) and bring water sunscreen and insect repellent. An adult must accompany children.
• Engage in Highlands Hammock State Park and Archbold Biological Research Station nature exhibits, including touching and holding a live pine snake.
• Learn about park habitats by observing wildlife photos and finding the match of birds, butterflies, reptiles and mammals within the murals of four habitats found in the park including Hammock, Cypress Swamp, Pine Flatwoods and Scrub.
• Play traditional games, including cat’s cradle, hopscotch, jacks, tiddlywinks, pickup sticks, and marbles.
• Explore the nature and history of Highlands Hammock State Park by taking a CCC Festival Scavenger Hunt geared for families with children of all ages.
• Children will be thrilled to ride on Bailey, a huge white draft horse; Catfish, the big bay; Mary Jane, the tall brown mule; or Fallon, a Friesian Percheron draft horse. Cost: $5 per ride.
Some other exhibitors and vendors include:
• Archbold Biological Station
• Avon Park Historical Society
• Coastal & Heartland National Estuary Partnership
• Country Girls Spinning Traditional Wool Spinning and Felting
• CRM Creations Gnomes For All Occasions
• DeSoto County Historical Society
• FDEP Office of Greenways & Trails
• FDEP South District Office
• Florida Artist Blacksmith Association (FABA) Blacksmiths / Frank Teele & Scott Teele (Table Sculpture of Steel Water Lily and Frog on a Lily Pad – Silent Auction Item and smaller for sale pieces to take home)
• Florida Flywheelers Antique Engine Club
• Florida Forest Service
• Florida Highwaymen Paintings (Kelvin Hair & Richard Edwards from Ft. Pierce)
• Florida Trail Association - Heartland Chapter | Florida National Scenic Trail & the Florida Trail Association)
• FWC Law Enforcement
• Heartland Beekeepers Association
• Heartland Cultural Alliance
• Highlands County Audubon Society
• Hummingbird Fused & Stained Glass
• IFAS Highlands County Master Gardeners
• International Harvester Exhibit: Model and Toy Tractors | 120 Years of Farm and Construction Equipment from 1902 to Present
• Jane Klein Jams & Jelly
• John Goss Archeology - Native American Artifacts
• Karen Smoke Quilting Traditional Quilting
• Lake Kissimmee State Park Cow Camp Reenactment Exhibit
• Ling-a-Bling Jewelry, Ornaments, Garden Stakes, and Suncatchers
• Nancy Dale Florida Cowhunter Books
• Roving Nomad Media Mixed Media Paintings, Handmade Jewelry, Soy Candles with Exclusive Scents, Custom Designed T-Shirts, and Handmade Boutique Electric Guitars
• Sebring Historical Society
• Shawn Holiday Palm Weaving Art, Baskets, Hats And Bracelets
• The Nature Conservancy - Tiger Creek Preserve
• The Velvet Canvas Acrylic & Watercolor Paintings, Bookmarks, Prints, Greeting Cards and Resin Art Jewelry
• Two Fast Casts Design Handmade Jewelry
• USDA Citrus, Insects and USDA Local Program Work
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Highlands Hammock State Park, 5931 Hammock Road, Sebring, United States
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