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Entertainment

For love of low tech

The Pinellas Folk Festival brings back that old-time music and ways of doing things Saturday.

By TIFFANI SHERMAN
Published January 27, 2006

If you think it's hard to get your chores done now, imagine having to spin your own yarn or hook your own rugs.

"We really take for granted how easily we get things done today," said Carol Cortright, special program and public relations coordinator for Heritage Village.

Visitors to Saturday's 13th annual Pinellas Folk Festival won't have to imagine what early settlers in Pinellas County did to get by. The free event offers a trip back in time, exploring Florida's folk traditions with an emphasis on music.

"We promise a whole day's worth of great music and a great opportunity to learn about Florida's folk traditions in a fun way," Cortright said.

From 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., vendors will sell food, artists and craftsmen will show off their creations, and about 30 musical acts will perform on four stages throughout Heritage Village in Largo.

"What people will hear is a particular type of music they don't get in every bar and coffee shop in the world," said Lee Paulet, 60, music coordinator for the festival. "It has its own particular sound and its own particular style and its own particular sweetness."

The music, he said, tells the story of Pinellas history without the big amplifiers and gimmicks of modern-day music.

Many of the musicians will sell CDs and tapes at the Heritage Village gift shop throughout the day. "If you like what you hear, you can take a little bit of it home with you," Cortright said.

The history lessons reach further than music.

Visitors "will see and experience things that most people think went the way of the dodo bird and the dinosaur," Paulet said.

The featured guest at this year's festival is Guy LaBree, 64, of Arcadia. He's a wildlife and history artist whose Florida themes include the Seminole Indians. His work was shown at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in 2004.

"You take things that happened in history and then paint a picture of it," LaBree said. It's his way of teaching people about past events, he said.

Sarah Paddock, 71, of Largo will be at the festival with her rug hooking group. They'll demonstrate the art of rug hooking in the Fiber Arts or the Daniel McMullen house. Paddock said it's not the latch-hook technique you see in craft stores now.

"These are loops that are pulled to the surface, but they are not knotted," she said.

Early settlers used everything they had and didn't waste anything. Sometimes the fabric for the rugs came from old clothing. "They let nothing go unused," Paddock said.

"In other eras, past eras, they hooked bed rugs to sleep under," Paddock said. Because there were no stores, they had to make their own things. As the bed rugs wore out or got dirty, they became floor rugs.

"It was through necessity in the beginning," she said.

Now Paddock and her Heritage Hookers meet weekly to hook and socialize. About a dozen of them will be at the Pinellas Folk Festival to demonstrate their craft.

"We try to keep up the image of traditional rug hooking so people understand this is what our ancestors did and we're trying to keep up the tradition," Paddock said.

The same thing goes for weaver Judy Saitta, 62, of St. Petersburg.

"It's an old, old skill that used to be essential to life," said Saitta, president of hte Pinellas Weaver's Guild, a group that will demonstrate how something goes from fleece to shawl Saturday.

They'll take fleece from sheep, spin it into yarn, then weave or knit it into a garment. Saitta will be at the festival spinning yarn.

"It's part of our heritage," Saitta said. "We feel that it's good to educate the public about it."

That's the whole point of the Pinellas Folk Festival.

"You can come out and have a fantastic day and not spend a penny if you wanted to," Cortright said.

WHAT: The 13th annual Pinellas Folk Festival

WHERE: Heritage Village, 11909 125th St. N, Largo

WHEN: 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday COST: Free

DETAILS: Parking is available in the event lot on 119th Street, between Ulmerton and Walsingham. Shuttles will run between the parking lot and Heritage Village. For more information, call 582-2123.

[Last modified January 27, 2006, 01:21:16]