Inverness used to throw one big turtle-themed party a year. Now it throws a lot of small ones. The Great American Cooter Festival started in 2004 as a three-day event. It got so big it moved out of downtown, and then it shrank. Cootertober replaced it in 2023. It's built differently: a month of evening and weekend events, most of them run with local partners, held in the same places people already use. That's why the rest of this October looks the way it does. Fewer blockbusters, and lots of reasons to head downtown on a weeknight.
The festival that outgrew its own town
The cooter theme came from Cooter Pond, the downtown landmark named for the turtles that once filled it. In 2004, the city pitched a festival to show off the pond and the downtown blocks around it. The festival started at Liberty Park. It grew into Wallace Brooks Park and the Depot District. By 2019, for the 16th annual festival, the city moved it out to Whispering Pines Park.
At the time, the city's marketing manager, Liz Fernley, put it plainly. "It's just too big of a festival to have it confined to the two parks and the Depot District," she said. Construction was also underway at Liberty and Wallace Brooks parks.
The bigger venue didn't hold the crowd. The Chronicle reported that attendance dropped over the next several years, with COVID-19 a major factor. In 2022, the city tried a ticketed Country Jam with a promoter, held Oct. 28–30. The promoter reported a bigger loss than expected. The city noted that the old Cooter Festival had cost more than $100,000 to produce.
A month that costs less than a weekend did
Cootertober took a different approach. It spread things out, brought events back downtown, and let partners carry part of the load. Speaking to the City Council during a recent Cootertober, City Manager Eric Williams compared the costs. "We're doing it this year at $50,000 or less," he said. "In one of those events that years ago was three days long, it was well in excess of $120,000. The real trick to the success has been these partnerships."
Councilwoman Jacquie Hepfer asked whether that meant a full month of events for about a third of the money. Williams answered, "100 percent."
He gave credit to groups like the ROCCS Regatta organizers and the Friends of the Withlacoochee State Trail. He said the trail bike ride grew from 200 riders the year before to close to 800 or 900 that year. Parks and Recreation Director Woody Worley described the opening concert crowd that same season. "What we normally see for a Saturday night, we saw on a Wednesday night."
Some of the old festival made it through, in new forms. The live turtle races became human turtle-sack races in 2023, so no actual turtles have to compete. Cooterween and Cooter Comedy at the Valerie Theatre were already on the schedule in 2021, before the month-long format existed.
What's still ahead this month
As of Oct. 4, the first weekend is done. The Cooter Country Music Festival was held at Liberty Park on Saturday, Oct. 3. It featured Play It Again, a Luke Bryan tribute, and No Shoes, Tattoos, No Problem, a Kenny Chesney tribute, plus a nighttime vendor market at the Depot Pavilion. The Friends of the Withlacoochee State Trail preservation ride started from Liberty Trail on the morning of Oct. 4. Here's what the city and its partners have scheduled for the rest of October:
| Date | Event | Where | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tue., Oct. 6 | National Night Out | Depot District and Liberty Park | 6–9 p.m. |
| Fri., Oct. 9 | Elvis & Roper Romp | Downtown, 1 Courthouse Square | 6–8 p.m. |
| Sat., Oct. 10 | Cooter Comedy | Valerie Theatre | See listing |
| Sun., Oct. 11 | Cooter Carnival | Liberty Park | 1–5 p.m. |
| Sat., Oct. 17 | Small Town Saturday Night | Downtown Square | 5–9 p.m. |
| Oct. 19–25 | Florida City Week | Citywide | Various |
| Sat., Oct. 31 | Cooterween | Courthouse Square | 5–8 p.m. |
Most of these are partner events, which fits the new model. The city lists National Night Out as the Citrus County Sheriff's Office annual event, held in the Depot District and Liberty Park. The Roper Romp is a crawl through downtown businesses in Mrs. Helen Roper costumes, the caftans, wigs and jewelry from Three's Company. This year it adds Elvis costumes too. At the free Cooter Carnival, local businesses host the games, alongside vendors, food trucks and kids' activities. Each one costs the city a little and draws on someone else's effort.
Cooter Comedy is back at the Valerie Theatre on Oct. 10. Tim the Dairy Farmer headlines, with Fran Capo as the feature comedian. The Valerie reopened as a city-run cultural center in 2015 and hosts plays, music and comedy all year. Small Town Saturday Night on Oct. 17 brings free live music to the downtown Square. Cooterween wraps up the month on Halloween, as a family event on Courthouse Square.
Florida City Week, Inverness-style
The newest piece this year is Florida City Week, Oct. 19–25. The Florida League of Cities organizes it statewide, and Inverness is folding it into Cootertober. Here's what the city has planned:
- A proclamation with Mayor Bob Plaisted
- An essay contest for local elementary, private and home-schooled students, which Culver's is expected to sponsor
- A photo contest featuring spots around the city
- A community service day
- Appearances by Sonny Cooter
Williams told the council the city also plans to share facts and history about Inverness on social media, and to spotlight local businesses and community partners. It's the same formula as the rest of the month. A sponsor covers the prize, students and photographers supply the entries, and the mascot handles the rest. It also gives a natural reason to walk downtown that week, camera in hand, looking for a photo-contest shot.
After the turtles: November and December downtown
The event calendar stays busy after October, with the same venues in use. The Inverness Festival of the Arts comes to Courthouse Square Nov. 7–8, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It's run by a nonprofit, the Inverness Festival of the Arts Committee. On Nov. 21, the Farm City Festival returns to Liberty Park from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The city describes it as a family event celebrating local agriculture. The Citrus County Chamber lists the Inverness Christmas Parade for Dec. 12. It runs through downtown toward Citrus High School, presented by Tony's Collision Center.
Whispering Pines, where the old festival ended up, also has something new. The park now has a second entrance off U.S. 41. Hartman Civil Construction built it for $1.2 million, with $1 million in state money and $200,000 from the city. Brannen Bank's Joe Brannen and his son, Matt, drove the first car through at the ribbon cutting. Brannen grew up a few blocks from the park. He also helped the Rotary Club secure the 1979 grant that paid for its ball fields. "It's a jewel," he said.
The city's 2026 legislative requests also include a West Inverness Trail Connector, with an estimated cost of $2 million to $3 million. Inverness expects to put about $500,000 toward design and is asking the state for construction money. For now, that's a request, not a project with a start date.
All these events say something about Inverness that a market report won't. If you're thinking about selling a home within walking distance of Courthouse Square or Liberty Park, That Other Laura Bush can tell you how that walkability is showing up in today's prices. Get Your Home Valuation, and we'll handle the details while you enjoy the Carnival.
