SANFORD, Fla. — After being canceled due to costs earlier in the year, the annual Jingle Jam Festival will be held in Sanford this December after all.

What You Need To Know

  • Jingle Jam was originally canceled earlier this year after event organizers say cost to host the event became a burden

  • The Community Redevelopment Agency Board Organizers approved a request for about $10,000  to help cover the cost of the festival

  • The event will be held from 1-7 p.m. on Dec. 16 in downtown Sanford

The event is hosted by Sanford Main Street and brings hundreds of people to the downtown area.

Event organizers say putting on the free event costs about $60,000 — with about $10,000 of that going to the city to pay for street closures and police officers.

From insurance to staging the event in general, organizers said rising costs due to inflation made it difficult to find enough money to host this year's event.

Sanford Main Street President Christina Hollerbach said the group requested around $10,000 from the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) to help remedy this issue.

“The commission needs to know how important these are to people’s quality of life, to people’s business," she said. "I get it ,it’s a big city with 65,000 people, and we’ve got other things to worry about. And special events might not be on high on someone’s priority list or focus, but they are important to us and someone’s business. So I’d love to see the city plan for that in their budget."

The CRA did approve their request.

Spectrum News spoke with a business owner who participates in the event every year and is excited to know the event is back on.

Since opening Wop’s Hops Brewing Company in 2014, Greg Piecora said he’s fallen in love with the process — a passion he discovered a love for while on a scuba diving trip across the world to the island nation of Yap.

“So I came home, bought myself a home brewing kit (and) started home-brewing," Piecora said. "Years later, I retired from state law enforcement and opened up Wop’s Hops Brewing."

He said his business' location helps it shine, especially around special events like the city’s annual Jingle Jam, which is now a long-lived tradition in the downtown area.

But after organizers announced it would be canceled due to event costs, Piecora said he thought his business would miss out.

But with Jingle Jam now back on, he’s ready to roll out some special beers to top off the year.

“So we worked together with the city, with the businesses involving Jingle Jam, to come up with a better plan to eliminate those issues. And so it came about and so we’re glad that it’s back,” he said.

Wop’s Hops participates in Jingle Jam every year, and Piecora said they like to do special beer releases on the night of the event. The extra revenue is also a great way to end the year, he said.

“It really helps to finish up the year as far as our profitably, and it’s our icing on the cake for," he said. "The end of the year, so we welcome it, we love it."

Jingle Jam 2023 will take place from 1-7 p.m. on Dec. 16 in downtown Sanford.