History:

Now in its 6th year, the Dark Sky Festival at Harmony attracted its biggest crowd yet. 4,500 people from throughout Florida attended what is becoming a highly anticipated springtime outdoor event.

This year's festival was distinguished by the recognition of Harmony as a Dark Sky Development of Distinction by the International Dark Sky Association (IDA). Florida IDA section leader George Fleenor joined IDA board member Audrey Fischer of Chicago to present the award. In making this recognition, Kim Patten, Programs Director at the International Dark Sky Association in Tucson, Arizona stated, "Harmony was developed with the goal of incorporating and protecting nature into the elements of the urban design. With this premise, they were one of the first master planned communities to consider the night sky in this equation. It's with great pleasure that we are finally recognizing their efforts in night sky preservation."

The evening began with a welcoming concert by St. Cloud's Silver Clouds Orchestra on the main stage and concluded with a live performance of cosmic music by recording artist Jonn Serrie.

In between, Harmony Square was busy with presentations that mingled education with fun. Scientists from Mad Science and Mr. Science engaged young and old with marvelous demonstrations of science that left you saying both "That was cool" and "I didn't know that". The Seminole Community College Planetarium was able to enlist both Galileo and Sir Isaac Newton to provide their first hand experiences with physics, and also brought along Dr. Demetrius Deuteron for an entertaining explanation of astronomy myths.

Proving that college physics professors can be fun guys too, Dr. Terry Oswalt of Florida Tech gave an entertaining explanation of the age old question "Why Do People Believe Weird Things?" Curtis Earth led the audience in a trivia contest, the Florida Bat Conservancy brought some of their favorite animals to explain how bats enjoy the darkness, the Sea Turtle Conservancy explained how lights affect turtle nesting and Gatorland gave everyone a snapping good time with stories and demonstrations of Florida's most famous reptile.

Harmony's streets were closed and filled with fun from the magicians of the House of Flying Cards, the balloon antics of Lester the Jester and corny jokes from Kirby the Trash Can, while Radio Disney filled the air waves with music and games "live from Harmony, Florida."

The Cosmic Kids Zone kept the younger crowd well entertained and featured Glo Golf. You may have sometimes felt that you were in the dark about the finer points of golf, but that didn't matter of you tackled the Harmony Golf Preserve's Glo Golf course. We were all in the dark on the putting green following fantastic glow in the dark shapes through their mini course.

And when it came time to eat, there were plenty of choices from the festival food vendors and the Harmony Town Tavern, where Rick Allen offered acoustic guitar pieces all night long.

And last, but perhaps best of all were the thirty some telescopes on Telescope Hill and Brevard Planetarium's StarLab. Local astronomers offered their equipment for viewing stars, moons, planets, satellites and anything else that could be seen in a sky full of stars. And the mini planetarium of StarLab made its second appearance at the festival and kept a line waiting to get into shows all night long.