DeSoto Seafood Fest opens Friday in Palmetto
Clark Manson is looking forward to this weekend's DeSoto Seafood Festival even more than most people.
"I love seafood," Manson said, drawing out the vowels in "love" for emphasis. Unfortunately, he said, he lives in a small town outside of Piqua, Ohio, and most of the seafood is pretty dismal.
The country music up-and-comer will be among the national acts at this year's festival. It gets going Friday and continues through Sunday, which is when Manson is scheduled to take the stage.
Most of the other touring artists who are performing at the festival will be leaving town soon after they perform. Manson, who's making his Bradenton-area debut at the festival, plans on spending some time getting to know the area.
"We're going to be sticking around until next Wednesday," he said in a phone interview. "We're going to be doing some fishing and we'll be shooting some video. We've wanted to shoot a video in Florida, and we've been told that Bradenton is one of the prettier places in Florida, that the beaches are fantastic."
The video that Manson and his band will shoot here will most likely be used for social media or as secondary footage in a later music video.
But they also plan to get to know the area and maybe do a full-length video here.
"If everything works out the way we hope it will," he said, "we'll be back to do a big, expensive production."
Manson, who's scored some modest hits including "Love It When You Drive" since his first album came out two-and-a-half years ago, said his sound is just as much rock as it is country.
"I have really strong classic rock element to me," he said. "I love Kiss and Bon Jovi."
But country music is definitely an emphasis at this year's seafood festival. Friday's lineup features Paper Stanley's at 5 p.m, Seven Years Past at 6:45 p.m. and country legend David Allan Coe at 8:30 p.m.
Saturday the music starts at 11:45 a.m. with Hanna Jae, followed by Matt Walden (12:30 p.m.), Boss Hawg (1:45 p.m.), Rebel Heart (3:15 p.m.), Tim Charron (4:45 p.m.), Fairview Union (6:15 p.m.), Darryl Worley (6:45 p.m.) and Dylan Scott (9 p.m.).
Billy Rice kicks off Sunday's music lineup at noon. Manson's set starts at 1:20 p.m. Then its Fairview Union at 2:30 p.m. and Halfway to Hazard at 4 p.m.
Obviously there's a lot more than music, including tons of fresh, restaurant-quality seafood.
Ironically, there's such a variety of seafood that people have commented that the don't get to try enough of it.
"They want to try different things but they'd have one bg plate and that would be it," said Ray Niecestro, the director of the Hernando de Soto Historical Socety. "So we've asked each of our vendors to come up with a signature dish something small, tapas-style, so people can sample the food from more vendors."
Also new this year are a truck show with 50 custom trucks and a sangria bar to go along with the craft beer selection. You can bring your own chairs, but for crowd safety you will need to sit in a designated area.
Details: April 1-3, Sutton Park, 1050 Sixth St. W., Palmetto. Hours: 5-10 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday, noon-6 p.m. Sunday. Tickets: Adults $5, $10 on Saturday after 4 p.m., children age 12 and younger admitted free. Information: 941-747-1998, desotohq.com.
Marty Clear, features writer/columnst, can be reached at 941-708-7919. Follow twitter.com/martinclear.
This story was originally published March 30, 2016 at 6:19 PM with the headline "DeSoto Seafood Fest opens Friday in Palmetto ."