The "people's fair" is Saturday at Walter Fuller. Organizers hope it remains colorful in every way.
By WAVENEY ANN MOORE, Times Staff Writer
Published October 23, 2005
Circus McGurkis, the annual free-form gathering that started with a commune of hippies 34 years ago, is moving from its longtime spot in Midtown to another location across town.
An organizer says she hopes the move to Walter Fuller Park is temporary.
The new venue offers ample parking, easy access and well-kept grounds, said Christine O'Brien, who helped to organize the first event in 1971. Still, she said, it saddens her that "the people's fair," with its eclectic array of jugglers, dancers, music, storytellers, crafts and social action groups, is being uprooted.
Its traditional home has been Dell Holmes Park, at 2741 20th St. S. Formerly called Lakeview Park, the expanse on Lake Maggiore is undergoing extensive improvements and could not accommodate the fair this year. The new location, Walter Fuller Park, at 7891 26th Ave. N, is at least 8 miles away.
"One of the sad things about not using Dell Holmes Park is that we wanted to be in that neighborhood," O'Brien said. "We really enjoy the fact that we have a multiracial event, and one of my concerns is that we are pretty much in a white neighborhood."
O'Brien said she hopes residents from the predominantly African-American neighborhoods around Dell Holmes Park will be able to attend this year's Circus McGurkis.
"It was sweet to see those children just riding their bikes from the neighborhood and participating in our activities, and I'm concerned that those children wouldn't get to be there," O'Brien said.
She's so concerned that regulars won't realize that the fair has moved that she is planning to put up signs at Dell Holmes Park announcing the new location. O'Brien was 21 when she helped organize the first Circus McGurkis.
"That was during the hippie time," said O'Brien, 56, noting that she was part of the peace and love generation. "We started Circus McGurkis to create a sense of community . . . having a peaceful day where everyone in the community could gather. The Sunflower School and all the different progressive groups and communes came out. We used to have it twice a year."
But organizers of the first people's fair had a hard time finding a place to hold their gathering.
"We were, after all, hippies. We weren't considered desirable folks. The city parks department didn't want us to use a more visible park. Park after park, they turned us down. Then they gave us Lakeview Park and we didn't even know where it was," O'Brien recalled. "It wasn't a really well-kept park, but we loved the park. We loved that it was on Lake Maggiore and we loved that it was in that neighborhood and that it was under the trees."
The gathering continued over the years, even a week after the 1996 disturbances that rocked neighborhoods near the park. This year's theme is "Clean Air Cars," the slogan that will appear on T-shirts that will be for sale. On Saturday a 43-piece marching band is expected to join a hodgepodge of other entertainers, including the Loud Zoo and the Tribe band and its belly dancers, and an array of drummers. The circus also customarily attracts social concerns groups, though much to the alarm of some fans, is drawing more vendors each year. Still, said O'Brien, community organizations continue to be the backbone of the fair.
"They show up every year faithfully. It's the only time all of us who are working for a better world and a peaceful community get a chance to be together and be bolstered by each other. It gives us a sense of family," she said.
Circus McGurkis is sponsored by the St. Petersburg Meeting of the Religious Society of Friend, or Quakers, and its Tampa Bay Peace Education Program. It's not a moneymaking venture, said O'Brien, a member of the area's small Quaker community. Vendor registration fees and T-shirt sales fund the following year's event, she said.
IF YOU GO
Circus McGurkis, a celebration that includes art, dance, music, juggling, storytellers, food, crafts and information, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 29, Walter Fuller Park, 7891 26th Ave. N, St. Petersburg. The rain date is Nov. 12. The event is free, but vendors and exhibitors must register and pay for a booth. Registration will be available on the day of the circus. Call 727 896-0310 or www.circusmcgurkis.org
