Florida Q-Fest Home Page

Please join us for a fun-filled weekend of BBQ cooking, sharing recipes and techniques, relaxing by the river and watching the smoke rise, while enjoying a gathering for friends and family in the great outdoors here in sunny Florida. This is a BYOCC (bring your own ceramic cooker) event, so pack up the cars, SUV's, and trucks with your cookers, camping gear, bikes, canoes and kayaks, and come join the fun!

We are pleased to offer folks the opportunity to pre-purchase demo eggs at very good price, thanks to the participation of Swim N Stuff, a Longwood, FL egg dealer. At other venues, only the large eggs have been available, however because this is a camping and bring-your-own-cooker event and since the smaller eggs are more common travelers, we are offering Large, Medium and Small eggs at a reduced rate following their use as demos at our event.

Our event is planned for October 10-13, 2003 at Silver River State Park near Ocala, FL. Come for just the day or join us for the whole weekend! Silver River State Park offers ten new cabins that will sleep a maximum of six people each. Each cabin has a full dining area, two bedrooms, one bath, stove, refrigerator, microwave, dishwasher, gas fireplace, heating and air-conditioning, screened porch, dishes, pots & pans, silverware, linen, towels, picnic tables and rockers on the porch. All you need is food, cooker, and your personal items. The Cabins are $85 a night. There are also regular camping sites for RV, Tent, Pull-Behind, and PopUp Camping for $15 with water included but electricity is $2 a night. Reservations can be made by calling 1-800-326-3521 between 8:00 am to 8:00 pm Eastern time or thru the Reserve America website. If the cabins fill up, there is a nearby Holiday Inn to accomodate our overflow.

We have rented a large pavilion to use for our cooking pleasure on Saturday and Sunday which will serve as the primary location for the festivities (thanks to Banker John and Sun Trust Bank). Other activities at the park are hiking, biking, and canoeing. There is also a museum and pioneer village to be explored.

If you have Adobe Acrobat Reader, feel free to download a park brochure to get a feel for the wonderful area we will call home for the weekend. There is also an excellent list of FAQ's about the parks system and a helpful Camping FAQ's page as well.

If you're interested in canoeing or kayaking the beautiful Silver River or the nearby Oklawaha River, bring your canoes and kayaks along. You can put in right at the park and paddle upriver to the headwaters at Silver Springs. The river has a pretty swift current so it is a workout, but is one for the most beautiful rivers you'll ever explore. It's WORTH the effort! If there are enough folks interested, we could work out some shuttles if folks would prefer to go downstream to an off-site takeout. If you don't have a canoe or kayak, you can rent them individually through a local outfitter, The Oklawaha Canoe Outpost.

So, if you're coming for the weekend, or just for the day, please register so we can make plans and check out the Who's Coming page to see who else will be there! We would like the event to be a successful weekend get-away for you and your family and friends.

FLORIDA Q-FEST