The Spirit of Suwanee Music Park in Live Oak, Florida hosted the ninth annual Purple Hatter’s Ball. Founded as a celebration of the memory of Rachel Morningstar Hoffman, a young woman murdered while acting as a confidential informant for police, the festival and foundation supports the goal of creating guidelines for law enforcement’s use of confidential informants. The gathering is a small festival that celebrates community through music, art, yoga and dance.
Having previously attended many festivals at the park, I knew what to expect from PHB, but was surprised by a few new things that I was either reminded of or became aware of during the weekend:
1. Festival goers will show up a day early for a “Community Action Day” to learn about environmental action and help reduce the harm of festivals on the site by planting a food garden, re-purposing plastic into “bottle bricks,” and building recycling containers from reclaimed wooden pallets.
2. There is a cold water mineral spring directly across the highway from the Park adjacent to the Suwanee river that was once the destination of health seekers in the 1800s. You can swim in it today and adjacent is an abandoned steel bridge.
3. Costumes are great (really no reminder needed here).
4. Passing out free watermelon to strangers on a hot beach day will quickly garner new friends.
5. New bands to see again: Sunsquabi, Sphistafunk, Corbit Clampitt Experience, The Hip Abduction, Flat Land and Catfish Alliance.
6. I’m still a huge fan of Jerry Garcia’s music and will happily put down my camera and dance to Melvin Seals and JGB.
All photos by Jeffrey Dupuis. Click here to view the full gallery on Flickr.
Photo by Jeffrey Dupuis
