Parkland Tutors

About Parkland

Everyone knows that food and music go well together, but Parkland, Florida, knows how to make the combination positively sublime. The city offers monthly concerts on select Saturday nights at its Pine Trails Amphitheater in Pine Trails Park. Then it invites food trucks—lots and lots of food trucks—and calls the free event “Eats ‘n Beats.”

Each Eats ‘n Beats evening features two concerts under the stars. The lineup differs each time but includes a wide variety of music for all ages and preferences. A quick glance at the schedule (www.cityofparkland.org/eb) shows past and future performances from all music genres, including country, classic rock, jazz, salsa, and swing. Tribute bands to classic artists such as the Beatles, Kenny Chesney, Tom Petty, and Bruce Springsteen are sprinkled throughout the schedule.

The food trucks are open for business from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. Hungry visitors can choose their food from a selection of food truck vendors, usually including Mexican food, Greek food, barbecue, burgers, pizza, ice cream, gelato, and other desserts. New food options show up each month. The music begins at 6:00 p.m. The Eats ‘n Beats concerts are free and open to the public. Guests should bring blankets and lawn chairs.

Placing Eats ‘n Beats in popular Pine Trails Park was another brilliant move by the city. The most popular park within the city, the park boasts covered play structures, a fishing pier, walking trails, basketball courts, T-ball fields, a concession stand, generous green spaces for unstructured play, and five multi-purpose fields, including one synthetic-turf field. Pine Trails Park is one of the lucky parks in the state of Florida to have a NEOS system. Made by Playworld Systems, the state-of-the-art, computerized playground equipment lures kids to play by mimicking an electronic game, the object of which is to run and climb.

The City of Parkland also hosts a two-day Family Fun Fest at the park, with games, carnival rides, live entertainment, and, of course, food trucks. The park hosts other special events, such as family bingo nights, farmers markets, fishing derbies, and spring break camps.

With so much to do there, it’s no wonder that the park is a great place to visit. Apparently one alligator thinks so, too. In November 2015, a City of Parkland Parks and Recreation employee discovered a seven-foot alligator in the middle of the soccer field. The reptile had decided to explore but couldn’t find its way back to the wild. The alligator’s mouth was taped shut, the reptile was moved, and playtime at the park continued.