Started with a visit to the Carillon Tower, a large building where they have hung a set of bells which play out Stephen Foster tunes. Inside there is a dome which has excellent acoustics and a 19th Century Steinway Piano! Sally joined in with a Shape Note singing workshop (pic). Shape Note Singing is a form of choral singing of hymns, different shape were used to identify the name of the note. The overall effect is quite amazing, Sally really enjoyed it. This was followed by a local gospel bluegrass group who sounded great in the dome(pic). An early lunch saw us at the Azalea stage listening to some Irish music, great fid
dler. Following lunch we planned to do a couple of jam sessions, the first was a gospel jam, followed by a ‘State Park Rangers Florida Song Jam’. As we were sat a number of Rangers (they run the State Parks, nice green military style uniform) arrived with instruments and more or less surrounded us. We thought that they would do a few campfire songs as the only way they could get to perform was to book their own workshop for the folk festival. How wrong we were, each of the Rangers took it in turns to perform, many of them songs they had written themselves. The standard was very high and dispelled completely the notion that Rangers were just ‘suits’.
The one place we had not visited was the ‘Riverside Gazebo’ Stage. This is Gazebo (open sided) built right down by the Suwannee River. During the festival it had been mostly used by local North Florida acts. It has been a growing concern of people that Florida is becoming over developed and losing its natural habitats and water resources. Protest songs are one of the main genres for Local Florida Folk. The Suwannee is the focal point for these environmental issues. The Stephen Foster Park is on the banks of the Suwannee and brings together the people, the protests and the place. The Riverside Gazebo becomes the focus for all of these concepts. On the final afternoon of the festival, (the unofficial closing ceremony), the gazebo slowly fills as people come to listen to local singers, a lot of the big name musicians come to support, almost as homage to the fight to save Real Florida Values. As the sun starts to set, the final item, in a by now packed Gazebo, is always ‘The Old Folks At Home’ (Way Down Upon The Swanee). Stephen Foster’s most famous song, Florida’s State Song and the anthem for environmental protestors. It was one of those moments that are quite spiritual in nature, a moving experience to be a part of. (I will try to write about the environmental concerns that are becoming very important some time soon)
The evening was filled with more dancing for me and the final concert for Sally. By 8.30 we were both absolutely worn out and came back to the Trailer.
We had enjoyed a fabulous musical weekend. We had met a lot of very nice people, too numerous to mention, but if they read this blog, thanks a lot for being so friendly.
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