Not only were people wearing green in the spirit of St Patrick’s Day, but they were spending it as well, in what may have been the best year for the Coral Springs Festival of the Arts as more people bought arts and crafts than ever before.

Howard Alan, President of Howard Alan Events, who helps produce the Coral Springs Festival by providing the artists, believes that this is indicative that the economy is improving.

“The feedback was great,” said Alan,  “People were buying and carrying bags, and that’s a good sign.”

Shirley Richards, President of the Coral Springs event, had a committee of 30 people which oversaw 200 volunteers, always sees the Coral Springs event as a success.  Every year the turnout gets larger and she never has a problem getting teenagers to volunteer.

“Next year the event will fall again over St Patrick’s Day, so we’ll have more Irish entertainment, including reinstating a performance stage.”

The cake challenge this year was for the bakers was to create a cake representing South Florida with a twist of Irish. Edible Flair, Inc. was the official winner and took home the “People’s Choice Award”.

The winning cake took four weeks of planning and took 14 hours to make. The pot of gold portion of the cake was made of chocolate fudge with non-alcoholic Bailey’s Irish crème for the icing. The items surrounding and inside the pot of gold, such as the Emerald Sea life preserver ring and the boat were made of rice krispies treats, marshmallows and fondant while the sand consisted of brown sugar. The biggest challenge to make the cake, a palm tree made of sugar sitting on the very top of the pot of gold.

Proceeds from the Festival will benefit the Coral Springs Museum of Art, and other nonprofit qualifying artistic endeavors within the community

If you are a teen and would like to volunteer for next year’s Coral Springs Festival of the Arts and obtain service hours, please go here: http://csfoa.com/contact-festival-of-the-arts.html.

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