Although Willing Street in downtown Milton was closed off to traffic, the street remained busy on Friday night with foot traffic for the annual Scratch Ankle Festival. Vendors for nonprofit organizations lined up on both sides street and the parking lot near the Imogene Theatre as residents strolled along the Riverwalk and near the Veterans Memorial Plaza. In addition to the Riverwalk Market, residents were also invited to Bands on the Blackwater concert series featuring a live performance from Chloe Channel.
Click here to view photos from this year's Scratch Ankle Festival
For many residents attending the Scratch Ankle event is a tradition. Austin Parkerson was one of several individuals to bring out his boat to the Riverfront. Parkerson brought the boat out to the event for his family.
“I plan to keep on doing this until I can’t any more or at least until they stop doing the festival,” Parkerson said. “I like going to all of the vendors and seeing what everyone has got.”
Several organizations were represented at Scratch Ankle from area non-profit organizations to local churches and school organizations.
Jay and Tina Rinehart of Hickory Hammock Baptist Church in Milton were cooking and selling fried Oreo cookies, which benefit the church’s youth group for an upcoming trip to Peru.
“It’s been steady,” Jay said. “It seems most people have had them before, whether it was at a fair or something, so it was something they have had before.”
Jay said many attendees visited the booth in order to get more than one order of fried Oreo cookies.
In addition to the food, games and other activities, many organizations were giving out information. Elder Dean Anderson of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Milton handed out information on Familysearch.org, a free family history and genealogy website, sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“A lot of people don’t about the website and that is why we are here,” Anderson said. “It’s important for everyone to know about their family history.”
Despite all of the options available at the event, many resident are happy to spend the community event with family. Gulf Breeze resident Joe Puff spent Friday afternoon with his grandchildren. This was the first time Puff had attended Scratch Ankle.
“It seems to be really nice, the weather seems great for it,” he said.
The festival, hosted by the City of Milton, was originally scheduled for April 11 then postponed to the April17 both dates had to be rescheduled due to a rainy weather forecast.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Scratch Ankle Festival draws crowd in downtown Milton (PHOTOS)