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Endangered folk festival proves its worth again
© St. Petersburg Times Iwatched a full moon rise behind moss-draped oaks while friends of the late Don Grooms honored him with a full night of nothing but music by and about him, and decided that, for an event that was supposed to be on its last legs earlier this year, the Florida State Folk Festival seems unusually alive and well. The festival, which celebrated its 50th anniversary over the Memorial Day weekend, had been endangered by post-Sept. 11 cutbacks in the Florida Department of State, and, without an agency to oversee it, was in real danger of becoming a part of the history it celebrates. But the Florida Park Service stepped in to be the responsible agency; New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner donated $78,000, an additional $110,000 in state money was shifted to the festival, and folk enthusiasts themselves raised a few thousand bucks to keep the show on the road. And things went well. It may be that the park service, which shares a devotion to preservation of the Florida most frequently celebrated in Florida folk songs, was the right agency all along to run the event at the Stephen Foster Memorial in White Springs, which was recently turned over to the service and renamed the Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park. There was instant and friendly rapport between festival participants, attendees and the park service people on hand. "This is a real gravy train for a holiday crowd," one park ranger, Pete Hennings, told me. Hennings, a folk singer, and his wife, artist Lora Sloop, work for the park service. "I've had one call all day -- to a husband and wife disturbance -- and they had settled it themselves by the time I got there. That's fine by me." From where I stand, the festival seemed to have returned to its roots. It was less, well, frantic. Organizers no longer seemed to be trying to cram as many acts as possible into an overburdened schedule, and it was a thrill to see increased African-American participation in the event. The Georgia Sea Island Singers, who are not only entertainers but are excellent lecturers on the Gullah language and the African-American culture on the islands of the Georgia coast, made multiple appearances, and the New Taylor Singers rocked the main stage on Saturday evening before Jeannie Fitchen's salute to the festival's roots. A big event for folk insiders was the presentation Friday night of a new Gibson J-45 guitar to folk icons Frank and Ann Thomas to replace Frank's guitar, which had been destroyed in an accident. Folk fans from throughout Florida had contributed to buy the guitar, which was presented to a speechless and tearful Frank Thomas while the festival's amphitheater audience stood and applauded." It was longtime Grooms friend and associate Tom Sheddan and his wife, Aimee, who put on the tribute to Don Grooms. It drew nearly 100 people to a tiny campsite in the musicians campground on Sunday night. Original members of Grooms' band and his widow, singer Suzanne Marie Grooms, sang dozens of songs written by the transplanted Cherokee Indian who taught journalism at the University of Florida and was one of the best known performers on the folk circuit when he died in 1998. Old fans and some who hadn't heard his music until he was gone sang along to historic, sad, and sometimes hysterically funny Grooms tunes. Many might not have noticed what was the high point of the evening for me. Singer-songwriter Mark Smith, who also incidentally works for the park service, had been out of musical circulation for a while as he applied his talents to some fiction writing projects. Smith, at the urging of others at the campsite, performed his musical tribute to Grooms, which took note of both aspects of Grooms' heritage, describing him as, "the only place in Dixie where the mountains meet the sand." It was some fun watching others realize that Smith had been gone too long. It was more fun watching Smith realize it. My guess is we'll hear from him again soon. And that's as good a reson as any for having a festival.
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