Published: Friday, May. 22, 2009

Updated: Thursday, Jun. 11, 2009

There’s fun to be had year-round in Bradenton

We don’t need a calendar to tell us what month it is here.

If there’s a parade going down Manatee Avenue West, it’s April.

If Caribbean Night is rocking Bradenton Auditorium, it’s July.

If Southeast and Manatee High are banging helmets under those Friday Night Lights, it’s September.

Easy as that.

When a community has as many traditions as this one, they will tell you what month it is.

To wit:

If the Martin Luther King Day Awards banquet is going on at the Palmetto Youth Center, a celebratory gathering of who’s who, it’s January.

Same for the annual Manatee County Fair.

If the county’s folks are gathered at the fairgrounds off 17th Street West in Palmetto, then it’s January.

A time for people to proudly show off their rural roots, ride amusement rides we’d never dream of riding, and fill up on corn dogs, elephant ears and sweet kettle corn.

If the Manatee Community Foundation “Spirit of Manatee” Awards Luncheon is saluting local folks whose generosity, leadership and vision form the underpinnings of our town, it must be February.

Ditto for the annual Cortez Commercial Fishing Festival, a Febuary fixture that shows off the seafaring side of our community that has withstood all kinds of obstacles for more than 120 years. It’s more good eating and music, too.

For the more genteel folk, there’s the Service Club of Manatee’s annual Antique & Collectible Show.

If it’s March, that means the Pirates and spring training at McKechnie Field.

It also means St. Patrick’s Day Parades in Holmes Beach and the Village of the Arts

It also means the American Cancer Society’s Cattle Baron’s Ball.

And the GeckoFest, where 6-foot-long, handpainted, fiberglass geckos are auctioned off to benefit the Village of the Arts, the South Florida Museum, ArtCenter Manatee and for public art education and display.

That gets us to April.

The DeSoto Heritage Festival Seafood Fest gets the month going in earnest, with the Children’s Parade, the Easter Egg Hunt, Sunrise Services, the Bottle Boat Regatta, the Desoto Ball and the DeSoto Heritage Festival Grand Parade that closes the month-long event with a bang.

The annual Crosthwait Memorial Fishing Tournament in late May is another sign summer is not far over the horizon.

Besides the Crosthwait, May ushers in events like the annual Manatee Chamber of Commerce Small Business of the Year Awards Luncheon. And “Where The Boys Are” at the South Florida Museum.

It also has several annual benefit golf tournaments — Southeast High, Palmetto High, Boys & Girls Club, Phil Galvano/Outback Classic — for duffers and donations.

June has the American Red Cross Boot Camp Ball.

July, of course, brings Independence Day and, we celebrate it here with more community gusto than some cities up north.

Don’t forget the DeSoto Fishing Tournament, either.

And Caribbean Night at Bradenton Auditorium in late July.

That usually means summer is waning and August’s annual Children’s Summit at Manatee Civic and Convention Center means school is about back in session.

Come September, high school football season is fully under way through December.

You can always catch those Friday night lights burning brightly somewhere — whether it’s Manatee High’s Hawkins Stadium, Southeast’s Kiker Memorial Stadium, Bayshore’s Balvanz Stadium or Palmetto’s Harllee Stadium or the stadiums at Braden River High and Lakewood Ranch High.

If you’re taking the family to Hunsader Farms for the annual Pumpkin Festival, then it’s October.

And if you’re making plans to catch the annual Holiday Boat Parade on the Manatee River, it’s December.