The Village of Royal Palm Beach is celebrating July as National Park & Recreation Month this Saturday, July 20, at Royal Palm Beach Commons Park with a day of family-friendly and dog-friendly events.
“We are celebrating with one big event to draw bigger attendance and make the day fun for everyone, and it’s all free,” Royal Palm Beach Parks & Recreation Director Lou Recchio said. “Last year, each weekend we had a little activity. This year, it isn’t so spread out. We have everything on one day, so families can come out and really enjoy the park.”
A volleyball tournament starts at 8 a.m., and there are bounce houses and water slides on the Great Lawn for the kids from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and kayaking is available from noon to 5 p.m.
“Then, at 4 p.m., so it is a bit cooler, everyone can head over to the Commons Bark Park, the venue’s three dog parks, for the Woofapalooza Summer Party,” Recchio said.
This is a specific time change from last year.
“In the past, we held the dog event at 11 a.m., and people complained it was just too hot. So, we listened and moved the event to later in the afternoon,” said Recchio, who said that the village’s research shows that more people visit the dog parks in the late afternoon when it is relatively cooler.
That research also shows that the park has an average daily traffic count of 500 cars.
“That’s an average of 3,000 to 4,000 cars coming into the park constantly every week,” said Recchio, who commented that there are some variations when school is in session, but that overall the attendance is great.
Recchio said these numbers don’t include special events, like this weekend’s celebration and the Fourth of July festivities two weeks ago. “We are finding that events draw from all over the county, not just the village or the western communities,” he said.
There will be a DJ throughout the event, so there will be musical entertainment throughout the day.
“People can go from the lawn to the launch site to the dog park,” Recchio said. “It’s an all-day event.”
He noted that at Woofapalooza, there will be an array of vendors.
“They will have little trinkets for the dogs, and there will be small pools of water so the dogs can cool off,” Recchio said. “Since it is later in the day, it won’t be so hot, and that should be better for the dogs and their people.”
Recchio said that they try to keep the dogs separated by size to cut down on any conflict between big dogs and small dogs, but that sometimes people bring small dogs into the big dog section.
“Sometimes the little dogs go after the big dogs,” laughed Recchio, who stressed that there is very little conflict and all the animals are usually well-behaved.
For complete details on all the July 20 events, visit www.royalpalmbeach.com or call (561) 753-1232.
