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The Florida
Folk Festival is an annual festival of music,
food, and traditional
arts to highlight and celebrate Florida's many folk cultures and traditions.
First presented in 1953 at the Stephen Foster Foster
Memorial in White Springs (today, the Stephen
Foster Folk Culture Center State Park), it has grown into one of
the nation's oldest continuous folk festivals.
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Thelma
Boltin
Thelma
Boltin was Florida Folk Festival director from 1955 through
the 1970s, and emceed the festival until her death in 1992. |
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Initiated
by the Florida Federation of Music Clubs and the Stephen Foster Memorial
Commission, the festival began as a four-day concert on one stage.
In 1979, the Florida Folklife Program assumed control of the festival
while the management of the memorial was transferred to the Florida
Park Service.
By the 1980s,
the festival had evolved to more than five stages, complete with folklife
demonstration areas, food booths, and
activity areas. In 2002, the management of the festival was transferred
to the Florida Park Service. Meanwhile, the Florida Folklife Program
continued to showcase Florida’s folk culture at each festival
with the Folklife Stage, as well as through year-round educational
and public programs, fieldwork, and publications.
The Florida
Folklife Collection houses recordings created at each
festival from 1954 through 2001. In addition, the collection features
thousands of festival images as well as records of the event's creation
and continued administration. A
concise history of the festival can be found on the Florida
Folk Festival official web page.
Programs
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| 1993
Folk Festival Program Cover |
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Each year,
the organizers (first the Stephen Foster Memorial,
later the Florida Folklife Program and
the Florida
Park Service) published a program for the Florida Folk
Festival. Early programs gave only the schedule plus the geographical
origins of performers
and sometimes a short biography. Later programs added interpretive and
thematic essays. Often maps of the festival, descriptions of booths and
food offered, photographs of performers, and other detailed information
were included as well. View
the programs housed at the Archives (some
years are missing).
Recordings
Arranged by year, this is a list of all the festival recordings housed
within the Florida Folklife Collection. Click on a year to read a description
of all recordings for that year's festival, including dates and which
stages were taped. For descriptions of individual recordings, go to
the
Folklife Collection database.
MP3 files for the 1954 through the 1979 festivals are also listed
separately.
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The
first recordings were created in 1954 by curator of the Stephen Foster
Memorial, Foster Barnes. He continued to
record the festival until 1965. Park staff and later the Florida Folklife
Program continued the recordings. Films
and videos were also created; see S 1615 for more information
on festival-related moving images. |
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Performers
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Barbara
Beauchamp
Barbara Beauchamp has worked for the festival continuously since the
1950s, doing everything from selling tickets to scheduling talent.
For years she worked alongside director Boltin. |
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Over the
years, hundreds of performers, both professional and amateur – including
singers, musicians, storytellers, actors, dancers, and even puppeteers
– have played the Florida Folk Festival. Here is a link to an alphabetical
list of many of the performers to have played the Florida Folk Festival,
followed by the year they appeared.
Stages
The Florida Folk Festival began in 1953 with only one wooden
stage. In 1955, that stage was replaced with a "marble"
stage, made from the discarded blocks from the old Barnett Bank Building
in Jacksonville. In 1975, the main stage was moved to the newly constructed
amphitheater, as the old stage was re-christened
the Old Marble Stage. After the Florida Folklife
Program assumed control of the festival in 1979, they added several stages,
including the Folklife Narrative Stage, the
Storytelling Stage, the Heritage Stage,
the Gazebo Stage, the Azalea Stage, and several
impromptu stages. The number and location
of the many other stages varied from year to
year.
Collections
Several archival collections contain material relevant to the Florida
Folk Festival. Click on the collection to read a description of each.
All images and sound recordings from these collections have been described
in the Folklife database.
For container and file listings, go to the State
Archives of Florida's Online Catalog.
S1576. Audio Recordings of Florida Folk Festival
Performances and Other Folk Events, 1935-2001
S1577. Photographs and Slides of Folk Arts, Artisans,
and Performers, 1910-1995
S1578. Publicity Photographs and Files for the
Florida Folk Festivals, 1954-1992
S1664. Florida Folk Festival Fieldwork and Program
Planning and Documentation Files, 1983-1995, 1998, 1999.
S1580. Thelma Ann Boltin Folklife Papers, 1955-1967
S1612. Florida Folk Festival Planning and Publicity
Records, 1954-1993
S1615. Video recordings of Florida Folklife Events,
Programs, and Television Broadcasts, 1948-1995
S1619. Florida Folk Festival Programs, 1953-2001
S1627. Florida Folklife Programs Administrative
Files, 1970-1989
S1664. Florida Folk Festival Fieldwork and Program
Planning and Documentation Files, 1983-1995, 1998, 1999
S2034. Florida Folk Festival audio recordings, 2002, 2004.
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