Tallahassee's Midtown District threw its own version of a block party on Saturday (5/21).
The Second Annual Taloofa Festival was much larger than its predecessor. From 4:00 until 8:00, Thomasville Road between Fifth and Sixth avenues was closed to traffic for the festival, which included non-stop music. Among the thirty private and public sector booth inhabitants was Kelly Goddard with the Florida Historic Capitol Museum.
"We've got puzzles up here for the stained glass dome,"she said, indicating cardboard replicas of the colorful skylight that adorns the interior of the Old Capitol's dome. "It's a very beautiful feature of our building and the kids are making pinwheels out of the old stained glass dome."
Midtown Merchants Association Head Don Quarello was calling the event an unqualified success.
"Obviously the second year is important because you want to make it better than the first year," he said. "And I think we've already seen that happen, so we have great hopes for next year."
Quarello says part of Midtown's attraction is that it's within easy walking distance of so many neighborhoods.