The board of directors for the Florida Blueberry Festival has decided to move its location from downtown Brooksville, which has upset many local business owners.

It's an event everyone in the Brooksville area looked forward to each year. April's Florida Blueberry Festival brought thousands of people to the city, but the festival won't be returning.

  • Florida Blueberry Festival will have new home in 2018
  • Business owners concerned about loss of revenue
  • Festival organizers believe event has outgrown Brooksville

It is sad news for locals like Rory Steele, the owner of Little Lady Cafe.

"Brooksville doesn't have a lot of things to bring a lot of people. That was something that brought people," Steele said.

Steele said her cafe would open early and close late to serve the visitors and vendors at the festival. She said her profits nearly tripled during festival weekend.

Not having the event, she said, will certainly hurt business.

"It gives exposure to our business. We were outside the Blueberry Festival but because it's right here everybody comes in comes out. We gained a lot of customers from it, we meet a lot of new people," Steele said.

Over at Enchiladas, the servers said they counted on the money they made during the festival weekend.

"I'm a single mother. I made at least a good amount of money that I look forward to every year," Felicia Castillo said.

The festival board of directors was set to sign a lease to develop an old golf course property in the city to expand the festival, but Monday night the Brooksville City Council announced they decided to look elsewhere. The festival director said the festival had outgrown the city, which spearheaded the decision to leave.

Business owners say besides the increase in revenue they saw during the festival each year, one of the best parts about the event was the exposure it gave to the downtown area and as a result got them many more regular customers.

Business owners now hope something else can come into the city to keep that exposure alive.

"How can we approach the council? What can we do to bring people downtown? Is it going to be a food and wine festival, a food truck festival?" Steele said.

There is no word yet about where the Blueberry Festival will be held next year.