Meadow Walk Home Owners Association

It has become a tradition each year to drop the pineapple in downtown Sarasota. New Years Eve is celebrated everywhere across the world, and Sarasota is no exception. This year we plan on taking the biggest New Years Party and making it better. We are bringing in a new lineup of great live music and electronic music and signature Pineapple Drop drinks as part of the biggest an best downtown NYE party Sarasota has ever seen!

December 31st 2 pm: Carnival Opens and stays open til 1:30am. Carnival includes adult and kids rides and a fun house.

December 31st 6 pm: We open Main Street to the public. Entertainment starts on all stages and runs throughout the night. Drinks are available from vendors on the street as well as in local restaurants and bars.

December 31st Midnight: We drop the Pinapple and celebrate the New Year.

Holiday Night of Lights on St Armands Circle Park is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Friday, December 7th. Watch as the Circle magically comes to light and life with grace and elegance. “Holiday Night of Lights” is St. Armands offical “kick off” to the holiday season. The event begins at 6:00 p.m. with our annual Christmas Carol Sing-a-long, followed by the “Santa Parade” lead by the Wells Fargo Stage Coach, arrival of Santa in his spectacular sleigh and our tree lighting ceremony.

Enjoy holiday entertainment, special store promotions and gracious hospitality provided by our many shops and restaurants. We do recommend making your dinner Reservations, in advance, at our many fine Circle restaurants. A special evening for the young and the “young at heart”. Photos with Santa are available throughout the evening.

The Festival happens through Nov. 6 in Burns Square where international artists will converge side-by-side with kids to chalk up the neighborhood. Drop by anytime, and you’ll never know what or who you might see.

One of the biggest draws will be Kurt Wenner, a Baltimore-based 3-D street painting artist known worldwide for his work. More murals are on the way, too, as the “Going Vertical” campaign will take over walls from 18 buildings around the city.

For those looking to chill to the music, Chillounge will turn the streets of Burns Square into a comfortable area to sit on high-end patio furniture while enjoying a night out with friends listening to live music. That takes place on Laurel Street between South Pineapple Avenue and South Orange Avenue from 5 p.m. to midnight on Friday, 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

Now in its 6th year, the Sarasota Chalk Festival’s goal is to bring the community together in mutual appreciation of some of the world’s best street art. Each year the festival has inspired thousands with its fantastic chalk drawings and wonderful murals. Last year the festival drew 200,000 spectators who saw 250 world-renowned artists such as Kurt Wenner and Leon Keer create beautiful three-dimensional chalk drawings on the streets of Sarasota.

The inaugural Sarasota Sports Festival, a free family fun day to boost awareness of Payne Park in downtown Sarasota, will be held Saturday, June 16, 2012 8 a.m. – 3 p.m. The FREE event will feature a family fun run/walk, motivational exercise classes and a wide variety of sporting events and demonstrations from disc golf to Strider bicycling to Teddy Tennis.

The new circus themed playground at Payne Park also will be unveiled to the public and Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey will perform a special one-time only act just for the Sarasota Sports Festival at 9:30 a.m. “I envisioned this family fun day over a year ago,” said Mayor Suzanne Atwell. “Thanks to a terrific hard working committee we’re putting together a fabulous event that will put our beautiful Payne Park on the map and give families a reason to get out and exercise while having fun on a Saturday,” said Mayor Atwell. Payne Park is located at 2050 Adams Lane.

Activities will kick off at 8:30 a.m. with a family fun run/walk around the half-mile Payne Park track. Then, while Gold’s Gym instructors lead invigorating exercise classes on the main stage, various other events will get underway simultaneously throughout the park. “I’m really excited about this festival,” said Joe Duffus, Sports Festival Chairman and CEO of FIT Group, a Gold’s Gym partner. “Sports festivals are becoming very popular around the country. Some cities have tens of thousands of people who show up to their events. Sarasota has never seen anything like this before and I think families are going to have a great day filled with free fun,” said Duffus. Festival goers are encouraged to stroll the grounds and test their aptitude with different sports throughout the day.