Collard Green fest returns with more programming, more food

What began as a friendly cooking competition and church fundraiser has blossomed into a multi-day event that promotes community health and camaraderie.

The Tampa Bay Collard Green Festival’s cofounders expect a diverse crowd of over 12,000 people to attend the event Saturday in South St. Petersburg. However, the festivities kicked off Feb. 9 with a 5k and “Fitness Extravaganza” in Pinellas Park.

The festival is at 2240 9^th Ave. S. and runs from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Boyzell Hosey, the event’s cofounder and vice president, believes it symbolizes hope and transcends culture.

“I think people take pride in knowing the community can come together over something we can all share in common, and that’s our love for what food does,” Hosey elaborated. “Sharing stories about our experiences over food – that’s something that cuts across cultural lines.

“The collard green just conjures up a lot of memories for people.”

The Collard Green Festival is from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Saturday at 2240 9th Ave. S.

Samantha Harris, cofounder and president, expects over 300 vendors to line the area around the intersection of 9^th Avenue and 22^nd Street South, known as the Deuces Corner. She credited the event’s explosive growth to its accessibility.

Harris and Hosey did not charge nonprofits a vendor fee throughout the first five years. Participating organizations and small businesses now pay a nominal price, and the event is still free for attendees.

The organizers rely on donations and partnerships to expand the festival while keeping it affordable. “From the beginning, it’s always been community-centric,” Harris said. “Everything from the time of day it was planned to the neighborhood.”

She noted the event is also “health-centric.” The festival’s website states that it addresses systemic interconnections between diabetes, heart health and hypertension, “three conditions that disproportionately impact communities of color due to food insecurity, limited access to preventive healthcare, and socioeconomic barriers.”

The Collard Green Festival helps mitigate those barriers. Attendees can learn how to grow and prepare healthy food and receive fitness tips. Community partners provide screenings and preventive care.

Collard greens are rich in vitamins A, K, B-6 and C, calcium, iron and magnesium. According to Prevention.com, the southern staple’s health benefits include cancer risk reduction and improved heart health.

The festival features a fresh collard green giveaway, a Collard Cook-Off, a family zone and several live entertainers. After some post-event analysis, the organizers created several mental health panels dedicated to men, women, couples and spirituality. The Worship City Church will host the discussions at 900 22^nd St. S.

“So, when you have all those elements coming together in a peaceful environment where everyone is welcome, and there’s a celebration – and it’s affordable – I think folks gravitate towards that,” Harris said.

Event organizers expect over 300 vendors, including healthcare providers who provide free screenings.

She announced that the 2025 festival will also showcase youth vendors who graduated from a six-week entrepreneurship accelerator program. All participants received their Florida ServSafe certification, and the kids will sell lemonade, sweet treats, jewelry and crafting kits.

Harris expressed pride for that initiative, supported by the Foundation for a Healthy St. Pete, and another element, the Inkclusive Book Fair. The festival routinely showcases authors and bookstores, and “moving forward, we’re putting everybody under one tent.”

Hosey said collard greens were the springboard to launch conversations and partnerships. The organizers have formed relationships with the Sustainable Urban Agriculture Commission, the Eckerd College Community Farm, the St. Pete Youth Farm, the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, the American Culinary Federation of Tampa Bay and Wendy Wesley, a renowned local nutritionist.

“When you bring all that energy together, it creates a certain synergy,” Hosey said. “I feel like I’m holding to a train, and I’m on the caboose, and I’m holding on to that rail – because this thing has really taken off.”

He said the collard cooking competition is now a more “polished experience” hosted by the Woodson African American Museum of Florida. The organizers hope it will foster interest in the institution’s work and exhibits, including a loaned Harriet Tubman statue in the community garden that Hosey called “such an imposing work of art.”

The event’s official mascot, the Collard Green Man, has evolved into the Collard Green King thanks to his crowd-pleasing dance moves and a local seamstress. “A lot of people think the festival is about the collard greens … but it’s really sparking the imagination of people to share,” Hosey said.

“Anybody in the community can come to the Collard Green Festival, learn something, have a good time and, perhaps, have enough inspiration to change your life a little bit.”

For more information, visit the website here.