Panama City In The News

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) – If you’re a coffee connoisseur or just like to taste new flavors there’s a new place in the Cove area of Panama City that would love for you to step inside. Espresso bar Caffe Del Mundo opened its doors in November and the owners say they already have a following. “Caffe Del Mundo means coffee of the world which we want to be known for,” said co-owner of Caffe Del Mundo Marta Rose-Thorpe. Jimy and Marta Thorpe are coffee lovers so it just stands to reason they would open a coffee bar. “It’s a full espresso bar with any of the creative drinks somebody could want,” said Marta.

PANAMA CITY — Residents should see updates coming soon for a local park in Panama City. The Panama City Commission approved the architecture and engineering services for Oakland Terrace Park during its Tuesday meeting.   In early September of last year, city officials approved the park’s concept master plans from Barge Design Solutions Inc. Barge aims to provide the engineering, landscape architectural designs, geotechnical engineering and land surveying services to the master design.

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WMBB) — Academy Sports + Outdoors announced a new location will be opening up in Panama City this year. Panama City officials confirmed Tuesday afternoon that the company is moving into the old Hobby Lobby building on 23rd Street. The company said this will be the 10th location in the state of Florida and will create around 60 jobs for residents.

PANAMA CITY — A local cookie maker is calling all cookie lovers to help break a world record in Panama City Beach next month.  Fat and Weird Cookie Co. is kicking off its first-ever Cookie Fest and asking for the community’s help to attempt to break a Guinness World Record of the most people dunking cookies at one time. The current record stands at 3,236 people broken by a Girl Scout Troop in Indiana.

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) – They say love makes you want to sing, but for one Panama City choir, they really love singing. The Panama City A Cappella Choir meets every week at Trinity Lutheran Church in Panama City to practice singing together. The all-women choir sings everything from religious, holiday, pop hits to patriotic songs only using the human voice. “We are all about empowering women through friendship, education and singing,” said Barbara Sampson, Director of the Panama City A Cappella Choir.

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WMBB) — A local artist has begun one of the largest, if not the largest, murals in the Downtown Panama City area. Heather Clements has painted several murals around the area, but at 100 feet, she said this one at Aaron Rich Marketing is her largest yet.

PANAMA CITY — Join the festivities at local New Year’s Eve events to help bring in 2022 with friends, family and fun.

BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) — While CrossFit and cats might seem like an unlikely duo, Panama City CrossFit was able to help cats and kittens find their forever homes at an adoption event this morning. Bay County Animal Services hosted a “Caturday” Adoption event to kick off their partnership with Panama City CrossFit. The idea for the partnership came after they noticed many people couldn’t afford to take their sick pets to the vet.

PANAMA CITY — A local woman is searching for the perfect building to open the first cat cafe in Bay County. Animal lover Salena Le hopes to soon open The Meow Cat Cafe in the Panama City area. After her visit to The Witty Whisker, a cat cafe in St. Augustine, she decided she wanted to open a similar business of her own.

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WMBB) — People of all ages lined the streets for the annual Jaycee’s Christmas Parade in Historic Downtown Panama City. Dozens of organizations and businesses paraded down Harrison Avenue on floats decked out with Christmas lights and plenty of holiday cheer.

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) – Folks of all ages gathered in Downtown Panama City to witness the annual tree lighting ceremony Friday night. Following the tree lighting, there was a hot chocolate buffet, a create-your-own cookie table, a snow machine for the kids to enjoy, and of course Santa in a decorated sleigh for the perfect holiday picture opportunity.

PANAMA CITY — The third annual Panama City Songwriters Festival starts Friday. The two-day event will showcase original works of local, regional, and national songwriters and musicians.

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) -The Bay Arts Alliance hosted the Haunted Walking Tour of Downtown Panama City Saturday. Tours started at 6 p.m. and took place every 15 minutes. The haunted trail in total was around half a mile long.

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WMBB) – Destination Panama City will be hosting “Downtown After Dark” on Saturday, Oct. 16 at the brand new Destination Panama City welcome center. The family-friendly event will feature local favorite Tyler James Arnold and The Voodoo Jelly as the opening act, and popular soul-rock musician JJ Grey and his band, Mofro as the main performance.

The 8^th Annual Public Eye SOAR Projection Art Festival comes to the Gulf Coast State College Panama City campus on the evenings of Friday the 12^th and Saturday the 13^th in November.