ZORA! Festival Goers Turn Out Big Time

Thousands flocked to Eatonville, Florida, on Saturday, for the outdoor ZORA! Festival of the Arts and Humanities.

Now into its 24th year, the expanded outdoor Festival featured a variety of arts, crafts, food and drink, along with several new additions including, “Fabulous Foods” Demonstrations, ZORA! Truck Stop, Caribbean American Passport Village and an Africa Diaspora Pavilion. A favorite of the art crowd, contemporary master, Charles Bibbs, was back again displaying his art work on Fine Art Lane, but this year demonstrating his skill with the brush and serving as a source of inspiration to many up and coming artists.

“I have attended the ZORA! Festival before, but this year I could see the growth in terms of the number of vendors, events and the variety of offerings,” said Betty Watson, who traveled from Miami by charter bus for the one-day outing.

It’s the third time that Dorothy, who also came from Miami, is attending the outdoor Festival in Eatonville.  She also commented on the increase in the number of vendors, but emphasized the historical significance of the Festival.

“It is wonderful to be right here in Zora Neale Hurston’s hometown Eatonville and to celebrate her life and work,” she said.  “There is so much historical significance to Zora, particularly in her major work and movie, ‘Their Eyes were Watching God.‘”

Another new addition was the strong appeal made to festival goers to contribute to help sustain the ZORA! Festival.  Although over the years attendance was free, N.Y. Nathiri, Director of Multidisiplinary Programs, The Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community (P.E.C.), the major sponsor, urged participants to donate whatever they could to keep it going for “our grandchildren’s grandchildren.”

“We are going to have a challenge contest….we have a serious situation and we have to demonstrate [to Orange County] that there is ‘broad public endorsement’ of ZORA! Festival by documenting the individual financial investments we receive during the Festival cycle,” she said.

At center stage, just before the band struck up, Mrs. Nathiri exhorted participants to put their $1, $2, $5 dollar bills or fifty cents, into the bright red, strategically placed wooden boxes at the bottom of the stage.

Perhaps Irene Prince, another ZORA! Festival goer from Miami summed it up best, “I am having a great time because I took a day off from my job, I am relaxed and enjoying the food and all the vendors.  But, I want to return to the Festival for many more years and so, let me go and make my individual donation.”