It was easy to get overwhelmed at Flavors of the South held last week at the Baldwin County Coliseum. The event was hosted by the Central Baldwin Chamber of Commerce, and according to Executive Director Marian Mason, about 300 people were expected.

A casual look around the spacious Coliseum showed that she was probably right. There were people everywhere — enjoying the music of “Cool Change,” getting a bid in at the silent auction, admiring the garden displays from Celebrations, Flowerwood Nursery/Southern Living, Hub City Florist, Magnolia Landscape, Practical Pools & Ponds LLC, Racine's Feed, Garden & Supply. Seminole Lawn Care LLC and Waters Nursery , and most of all, sampling some of the delicious food and drink about 25 vendors brought for people to taste and enjoy.

“My husband heard about this and wanted to go,” said Laura Stanton while keeping a close eye on her daughters, Lilly and Nancy Ruth, who were admiring a large model of a wedding cake provided by Sweet Treats Bakery in Robertsdale.

Stanton was impressed.

“We have never been (to “Flavors”) before and it’s nice.”

Stanton and her family were just getting started filling their plates, and she was already looking forward to having some of the seafood and stuffed mushrooms vendors were dishing out to the crowd.

“I am looking forward to all of it,” said Stanton.

That’s the reaction Terri White, the Bakery Supervisor at Burris Farm Market was hoping for.

“We have bread pudding, blackberry cobbler, and grape or chicken salad,” said White.

White even had some of the market’s signature pepper jelly dip, coming in a spicy pepper and a hot, hot, hot jalapeño version.

If the dip was too spicy, it was easy to head over to the wine sampling area. There, a number of stores had samples of wine for adults to cool the palate and lots of tasty hors d'oeuvres.

When asked why he was at the event, Randy Williams, owner of the “Red or White” wine store in Fairhope and Mobile replied, “Because they asked me.”

Williams added that he had heard of the event before, and “wanted to see what was going on.”

Thomas Cain of Cain’s Piggly Wiggly in Foley brought a selection of the market’s “Hurri-Cain” wine for people to try.

“We also have a deli named “Hurri-Cain,” said Cain.

The store’s wine cellar boasts some 3,000 varieties of wine and about 140,00 bottles added the store’s wine specialist, Pierre Vilan.

Hub City Seafood in Robertsdale was giving some of the store’s famous “bacon wraps” out to try.

“I have bacon wrapped shrimp, some stuffed with crab meat and some with cream cheese and jalapeño,” said Lisa Overstreet, the store’s owner.

“We come here every year,” said Overstreet. “We want to promote the items we carry.”

Karen Giordano, the owner of “Kandies by Karen,” had an assortment of handmade candies in a wide variety of flavors.

“Some are brushed with an edible pearl dust,” said Giordano. “We came here just to have fun, and see if we could get some business prospects.”

Mason seemed to be everywhere at once.

“Last year, we sold 300 tickets,” said Mason, “and this year, we are above that.”

The extra room at the Coliseum came in handy.

“We are so grateful — the City of Robertsdale gave us one of their event days to have this. Sonny and Melinda Hankins, the people who run this facility have been wonderful,” Mason said.

The fun also had a serious purpose — a portion of the proceeds went went to the Central Baldwin Education Foundation which hopes to supplement teacher’s programs in the area.

According to the program, here are the vendors at the Flavors of the South event:

Andree's Wine & Cheese, Bruno's Supermarket, Budweiser, Buffalo Rock, Buries Farm Market, Cain's HurriCain Market, Coca Cola Bottling Company Consolidated, Domino's Pizza, Foley Package Store,

Greer’s, Hearthstone Assisted Living, Hickory House BBQ, Hub City Seafood, Ivey’s Fine Dining, Kandies By Karen, Katy's Catering, Magnolia Blossom Café, Mama Lou’s, Mr. Omayer’s S. Gyromayer’s, Red or White, Sandra’s Place, Sweet Treats Bakery, Sysco Gulf Coast, Water’s Corner, Westminster and Winn Dixie in Robertsdale.