The early morning rains led to a mostly overcast affair Monday afternoon as thousands lined the streets for the annual Florida Strawberry Festival Grand Parade.
The event wrapped throughout the streets of downtown Plant City to the Florida Strawberry Festival Grounds and folks lined up in lawn chairs, the bed of their trucks and even stood in the heat to take in the extravagant parade.
Many make a full day of the event, which kicked off at 1 p.m. City Hall was closed for the entire day as were many local businesses who let their employees enjoy the time soaking in the experience. Some attendees camp out near the festival grounds to take in the end of the parade and then quickly head back inside the festive event while others attend house parties up and down the streets the parade winds through.
Every year many of the floats aim to fit theme and there were no shortage of baseball stress balls, parade walkers donned in baseball and softball uniforms and large bats interwoven into the floats.