Florida Folk Festival, May 24-26, 2024, celebrates Florida people & culture

Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park in White Springs

The Florida Folk Festival began with the music: It was 1953, and Pete Seeger and the Weavers had a big hit with Leadbelly’s “Goodnight, Irene.”  Folk music was exploding with acoustic guitar, coffee houses, banjos, beatniks and sing-alongs.

Now some 70 years later, the Florida Folk Festival is still held every Memorial Day weekend, and you’re sure to hear plenty of folk music. But the event has broadened to celebrate Florida’s land, people and diverse cultural heritage.

The Florida Folk Festival is held annually on Memorial Day weekend on the banks of the historic Suwannee River at Stephen Foster Cultural Center State Park in White Springs, and it is ranked among the top 20 festivals in the southeast.

In addition to a full schedule of performances, you’ll find plenty to amuse and educate.

The festival focuses on traditional crafts — everything from split rail fences to henna tattoos.

And the food is not the same-as-everywhere festival food. Look for blue crab burritos, Jamaican patties, shrimp gumbo or Beulah Baptist Church’s chicken and dumplings dinner.

The mission of the Florida Folk Festival is to keep cultural traditions alive, so it emphasizes demonstrations and workshops. Visitors can learn how to square dance, make a pine needle basket or try out playing a mandolin.

There will be more than 300 performances by Florida’s greatest folk and roots artists, as well as folk, blues, gospel, country, Latin, jazz, bluegrass, Caribbean and zydeco music.

The schedule of performers is an eclectic mix of familiar names and new discoveries.

2024 performers will be updated when available

Highlights of performers in 2023

Many of these performers return every year.

John McEuen and the String Wizards present: Will the Circle Be Unbroken. Multi-instrumentalist John McEuen is one of the founding members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

Ben Prestage has created his own signature sound, Deep South swamp music, by melding juke joint blues, Delta blues and Piedmont blues with finger-style guitar and steel-guitar work.

Grant Livingston, a singer and songwriter who weaves history and the environment into his songs. He has written about South Florida pioneers Henry Flagler and Julia Tuttle, the invasion of the Everglades by Melaleuca trees and pythons, armadillos and barnacles, among many topics.

Jim Stafford, born in Winter Haven, is a singer, songwriter, musician, and comedian. He recorded “Spiders & Snakes,” “Swamp Witch,” “Under the Scotsman’s Kilt,” “My Girl Bill,” and “Wildwood Weed” in the 1970s. Stafford headlined at his own theater in Branson, Missouri, from 1990 to 2020. Stafford is self-taught on guitar, fiddle, piano, banjo, organ, and harmonica.

The Lee Brothers, are an African-American “sacred steel” ensembles. This family group consists of three brothers, Alvin Lee (guitar), Derrick Lee and Keith Lee (vocals) along with their three nephews, Roosevelt Collier (pedal steel guitar), Alvin Cordy, Jr. (7-string bass) and Earl Walker (drums). Each member began making music at the ages of 7 and 8 in the House of God church they attended in Perrine, Fla. Born and raised in Miami, each of The Lee Boys grew up in the church where their father and grandfather, Rev. Robert E. Lee, was the pastor and a steel player himself. “Sacred steel” is a type of music described as an inspired, unique form of Gospel music with a hard-driving, blues-based beat. The musical genre is rooted in Gospel, but infused with rhythm and blues, jazz, rock, funk, hip-hop, country and ideas from other nations.

Billy Dean, a native of Quincy, Florida, is known by his peers as the “James Taylor of country music.” By the age of 10, he was playing in his dad’s country band.

Jeanie Fitchen made her first appearance at the Florida Folk Festival in 1966. Since then, she has earned accolades and awards for her performances, songwriting and recordings. Her work focuses not only upon the culture, history and environment of Florida, but also the basic human dignity of all people.

Papaloko & Loray Mistik
Loray Mistik – or “Mystic Thunder” – emanates from the hills and villages of the ancient land of Haiti.

Del Suggs is one of Florida’s most widely recognized national artists. A singer/songwriter and guitarist, Del coined the term “Saltwater Music” to describe his beachy, laid-back sound. He’s now heralded as a pioneer of the “Trop Rock.”

Planning your visit 

At the gate, tickets are $40 per day for adults; $80 for the three-day weekend. Children 6 to 16 are only $5 for the weekend. You can purchase tickets online in advance for $35 per day for adults and $70 for the three-day weekend. Kids tickets are $5 in advance. Here is ticket information.

Nearby lodging for the Florida Folk Festival

• More about the Stephen Foster State Park
• Website for Florida Folk Festival,including scheduled performances.