Starting Monday, Nov. 16, the lamp posts in Liberty Park start changing a few at a time. Businesses and organizations have until dusk each day to decorate them, and the work runs through Nov. 29. The lights stay off until the evening of Dec. 5. Liberty Park sits at 286 N. Apopka Ave. The Depot Pavilion, home of Market at the Depot, sits at 300 N. Apopka Ave. For the next six weeks, most of what downtown Inverness has planned happens on or near that short stretch of road. Two Saturdays put several events on it at once.
If you live at Moorings at Point O Woods or anywhere else on the Tsala Apopka Chain of Lakes, downtown is close enough for an errand. What follows is the season in order, built around those two Saturdays.
The weekend this post lands: Courthouse Square and the Valerie
The Inverness Festival of the Arts filled downtown on Nov. 8, carrying on a juried show that has run since 1971. This weekend the activity shifts a block over to the square and the theater.
On Saturday, Nov. 14, Small Town Saturday Night brings free live music to Courthouse Square from 5 to 9 p.m. The City lists the address as 207 Courthouse Square.
The Valerie Theatre opens A Nice Family Gathering on Friday, Nov. 13, and runs it over two weekends. Here's the schedule from the City's Valerie Theatre calendar:
- Friday, Nov. 13 at 7 p.m.
- Saturday, Nov. 14 at 2 p.m.
- Sunday, Nov. 15 at 2 p.m.
- Friday, Nov. 20 at 7 p.m.
- Saturday, Nov. 21 at 2 p.m.
- Sunday, Nov. 22 at 2 p.m.
On Nov. 14 you could see the 2 p.m. matinee and still make the first set on the square at 5. The Nov. 21 matinee falls on the busiest morning of the month, covered below.
Saturday, Nov. 21: two events, 14 street numbers apart
The City calendar gives the Farm City Festival and Market at the Depot exactly the same hours on Nov. 21, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. They're at 286 and 300 N. Apopka Ave., so on that Saturday they work as one long morning on one block.
The Farm City Festival takes over Liberty Park. The City bills it as a family-friendly event celebrating local agriculture and "the people, products, and practices that help bring fresh, nutritious food to our tables."
Next door, Market at the Depot holds one of its regular first-and-third-Saturday markets. According to the City's listing, vendors bring produce, sweets, fresh seafood, jams and jellies, hot sauce, dried fruits and candies, repurposed furniture, plants, and work by local artisans. Since the market and the festival run the same hours, one parking spot can cover both. For anyone heading home with seafood, the produce and seafood stalls make a good last stop.
That's also the day of the Valerie's 2 p.m. matinee, and the theater is a short walk from the market. You could fit the festival, the market and the play into one Saturday.
Between the two Saturdays: what changes downtown
The week after Nov. 21 is quieter, and downtown spends it getting ready. The lamp posts are going up in Liberty Park through Nov. 29. The Valerie has two holiday-week shows:
- Comedy at the Valerie, Friday, Nov. 27, at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.
- A Very Jazzy Christmas with Downing Street Big Band, Sunday, Nov. 29, at 2 p.m.
Comedy at the Valerie on the Friday after Thanksgiving could be an easy outing with visiting family. The big band matinee falls on the last day of lamp-post decorating, so a walk through Liberty Park afterward would show most of the posts finished before they're lit.
Downtown's restaurants have changed this year too. The Citrus County Chronicle reported that Nine State Brewery at 200 Tompkins St. has closed after about seven years downtown. In the paper's account, the brewery's farewell message called the run "an incredible journey" and thanked its customers, friends and community.
The same Chronicle column listed two other downtown changes:
- Hometown Deli, 103 N. Apopka Ave., at the south end of the street where the festival and market take place. The Chronicle reported that the deli was damaged in an explosion at neighboring Storm Distillery in April and set its reopening for Aug. 31. Its announced regular hours were 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., with breakfast and lunch menus.
- Artman's Smokehouse, 301 W. Main St., a barbecue restaurant in the former Angelo's Pizzeria & Ristorante space. The Chronicle reported a Sept. 1 opening date, with planned hours of 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and closed Sunday and Monday.
Before you plan a meal around either one this season, call ahead or check its current hours.
Friday, Dec. 4 and Saturday, Dec. 5: the season's busiest stretch
The second stacked Saturday is longer than the first and starts the night before.
- Friday, Dec. 4, 6 p.m. The City has a Polar Express movie night at Liberty Park.
- Saturday, Dec. 5, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Market at the Depot holds its first-Saturday market at 300 N. Apopka Ave.
- Saturday, Dec. 5, 5:45 p.m. Light Up Liberty, when the decorated lamp posts in Liberty Park are lit for the first time.
The market closes at 2 p.m., and the lamp posts light at 5:45 p.m. That leaves almost four hours to fill. Some people may go home in between, and others may stay downtown.
The lamp posts are judged in three categories, Most Festive, Most Creative and People's Choice. Each post has a QR code for People's Choice voting, and voting closes at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 7. If you're downtown that weekend, you can vote by phone from the park.
The rest of December
After Light Up Liberty, a few more dates fill out the month:
- Saturday, Dec. 12. The Citrus County Chamber of Commerce lists the Inverness Christmas parade on this date.
- Tuesday, Dec. 15, 5:30 p.m. The lamp-post winners are recognized at the City Council meeting at the Inverness Government Center, 212 W. Main St.
- Saturday, Dec. 19, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Market at the Depot holds its last scheduled market before Christmas.
- Saturday, Dec. 26. Decorations come down from dawn to 9 p.m., according to the City's Light Up Liberty lamp-post notice.
That makes the Dec. 19 market the last chance before the holiday for jams, hot sauce, candies and handmade goods from the Depot vendors. The lamp posts stay lit through the following week and come down the day after Christmas.
You can check each date on the City of Inverness calendar before heading out. If you're planning a Saturday, Nov. 21 and Dec. 5 put the most within a short walk.
If family is coming to town for the parade or Light Up Liberty and starts asking what life near downtown or on the Chain of Lakes is really like, we'd be glad to help with those conversations. The team at RES Luxury Group can share what we know about Inverness, from Courthouse Square out to the lakes. Contact Us.
