Gulf Coast Fest: Celebrating Our Florida Hope Spot
Published on February 24, 2026
"Hope Spot Festival" has a new name. The annual event celebrating ocean conservation, environmental protection, and the City’s designation of being the “Home City” of the Florida Gulf Coast Hope Spot is now “Gulf Coast Fest: Celebrating our Florida Hope Spot.” The festival also has official branding, thanks to artist Tom Stovall, who is locally known for designing and painting the turtles on the Dunedin water tower. One of the featured turtles is named after Dr. Sylvia Earle, who is the founder of the international Hope Spot initiative.
This year’s festival will be held at the Dunedin History Museum and adjacent parking lot on Saturday, February 28, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. A downtown community cleanup will be held before the event at 9 a.m. This is a free eco-friendly and zero-waste event which showcases our unique waters and ocean. Enjoy music, hands-on activities, live-animal shows, and educational experiences as we focus on ocean conservation, sustainability, eliminating unnecessary plastics, and protecting the wildlife and environmental systems that safeguard us.
Dunedin is home of the Florida Gulf Coast Hope Spot. This means the Gulf Coast of Florida is recognized as a critical place worth protecting, designated as part of a larger global network in 2019 through Dr. Earle’s international Mission Blue™ program. It means we understand the immeasurable value that the Gulf Coast and our local waters have on our home, economy, local habitat, and way of life. The Gulf Coast defines our region and is the reason many people call this place home. Hope Spots are areas that are critical to the health of the ocean.
Dr. Earle is a world-renowned oceanographer who spent her youth here in the Dunedin area, where her passion for ocean conservation grew as she spent time on and in the Gulf Coast. She famously coined the term, “No water, no life. No blue, no green.” This is an all-encompassing statement defining what environmental protection is – understanding the interconnectivity between our daily lives and the environment. What we do on land impacts the water, and what we do in the water impacts the land.
In 2009, Dr. Earle created the Hope Spot program, which has made waves of activism across the world, including right here in Dunedin. Inspired by her work showcased through the documentary Mission Blue, Dunedin residents Tracy Tippin, Ray Bouchard, and Vicki Love banded together to take local action. They gained the support of the community and established a partnership with the City of Dunedin to make this designation a reality.
The Florida Gulf Coast Hope Spot spans from Apalachicola Bay to Ten Thousand Islands. Protecting it can look different for all of us. We can take action in and around our waters, such as safe boating practices, respecting marine wildlife and reducing plastic. But we can also act on land, including reducing emissions by biking and golf carting more, installing solar on our homes and composting. When we all participate in our own way, we make waves of progress and protect the invaluable waters we so proudly call the Florida Gulf Coast Hope Spot.