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Folk fest fiddles on
Threatened by the state budget crunch, Florida's traditional music party ended up with enough money for another year.
By Times staff
© St. Petersburg Times
published May 23, 2002
[Photo: Florida Folk Festival]
One folk music fan joined a jam session with his autoharp during the Florida Folk Festival.
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For nearly 50 years, Memorial Day weekend in North Florida has meant the Florida Folk Festival, one of the nation's oldest celebrations of traditional music.
But last winter was nail-biting time for folk music fans. Facing a serious budget deficit, legislators decided to cut the festival's budget.
For a while, it looked like an event that drew around 20,000 to a park along the Suwannee River for three days of bluegrass, gospel, folk, country, Latin, jazz and Cajun music would become just another Florida memory.
But between a $78,000 gift from New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and a $110,000 shift in the state budget, the festival was back in business.
With a dozen stages scattered around 850-acre Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park in White Springs, north of Lake City, the festival is nonstop music, dance and storytelling, plus handmade crafts and food ranging from fried chicken to Greek pastries.
Suzy Bogguss
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The featured performers are a veritable who's who of the folk, country and blues worlds, including Grammy-nominated folk artist Mike Seeger, St. Petersburg bluesman Roy Book Binder, Texas singer-songwriter Guy Clark, folk fiddler and founding director of the American Folklife Center Alan Jabbour, Irish folk singer Mary McLaughlin, country artist Suzy Bogguss, African-American traditional artists the Georgia Sea Island Singers, St. Petersburg piano-guitar team Liz Pennock & Dr. Blues, and the Nashville Underground, featuring singer-songwriter Billy Dean, country artist (and Dunedin native) Lari White, Chuck Cannon, Pam Rose and Chuck Jones.
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[Photo: Florida Folk Festival]
Florida Folk Festival overcomes a budget crunch and opens just north of Lake City this weekend with music, food and crafts.
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PREVIEW: Florida Folk Festival, 10 a.m.-11 p.m., Friday-Sunday, Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park, White Springs.
To get there: From I-75, take Exit 439 (State Road 136), and travel east 3 miles. Turn left on U.S. 41 at the state Nature & Heritage Tourism Center. For the main entrance and parking, continue 1 mile north on U.S. 41 and turn left at the Florida Folk Festival sign.
Admission: For individuals, $15 advance for one day ($20 at gate); $35 advance for the weekend ($40 at gate). For families (up to two adults and their children younger than 16): $40 advance for one day ($45 at gate); $50 advance for the weekend (55 at gate). For information, call toll-free 1-877-635-3655.
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