Barbara Hooper was scrolling on Facebook one January night when a post caught her attention. The Friends of McIntosh had announced the cancellation of the town’s annual festival.
The photography business owner has attended the festival since her 16-year-old daughter Grace was in a stroller. Hooper, who lives in Citra, typically marks the date of the 1890s Festival in her calendar as soon as it is posted and arrives right as the event opens.
Where would she stockpile fall decor or Christmas gifts if not at the festival, she wondered. What would happen to this family custom without it?
“My heart dropped,” Hooper said. “I couldn’t believe they were ending the festival – because it’s become tradition.”
It is not canceled anymore. After the longtime group of organizers announced they would end the 50-year-old custom, about 60 people agreed to work together to keep it going. In doing so, they’re preserving the festival’s traditions while making changes of their own.
The festival’s name honors a key time in McIntosh’s past. Founded in the 1880s, the town flourished in the 1890s, and many Victorian homes from that era still line its oak-shaded streets. The first festival, held in 1974 and originally called the McIntosh Gay Nineties Festival, raised money to restore the town’s pre-1890 train depot, according to the town’s website.
Six days after the cancellation announcement, Hooper and the others joined a town hall meeting called by Holger Giese, the manager of Sportsman’s Cove Campground.
“I told everybody in the first meeting: ‘Everybody who raises a hand right now is committing to 50 years,’” Giese said. “It was a joke, but we have a really good group of people.”
Come festival day, Saturday in McIntosh’s historic district, the town of about 500 residents expects 30,000 people to roam its streets under moss-draped trees. It is the busiest time of year for local businesses like Giese’s campground, which hosts many out-of-town vendors.
The new management committee, with official approval from the town council, operates under the name McIntosh 1890s Festival. The group has elected four board members, including Hooper and Giese, and includes about 40 volunteers, they said.
Although the initial goal was to just make sure the festival lives on, the group has modernized operations based on their skill sets and insight from the outgoing board, Giese said.
One major change is a shift toward digitization. Giese said he developed a new website with the help of festival event manager Gretchyn Boshart, who built a digital database. Now, vendors apply directly through the website, marking a transition from a system in which hundreds of handwritten letters were mailed to them every year.
Boshart’s primary role, however, is to bring the music back. The festival has had musical performances in the past, but not in a while, he said. This year, at the heart of the festival will be five live shows, including one by Becky Baby, a local retro artist.
“Coming out of entertainment, I was really excited that we had a stage that we could play with and bring in some live entertainment,” said Boshart, who just finished a four-year road stint as a comedian in Las Vegas. “It was really nice to be able to trump that up a little bit this year.”
The other four bands slated to perform are not from McIntosh, but some of their members have attended the festival before. Ocala native Brian Young, lead vocalist of Pasture Prime Bluegrass, said he recalls playing the trombone there with North Marion High School’s marching band decades ago. After parading the streets, the band would perform on stage, Young said.
“The band director back then would always have us come to this,” he said. “It was good clean fun for everybody.”
Organizers are also changing how the festival funds itself, now turning to sponsorships. Any profit, they said, will go toward next year’s festival and local nonprofit organizations. In the past, it served as a major fundraiser, allowing the former group to run a food bank and give emergency utility assistance to struggling residents, Giese said.
One of the festival’s first sponsors is the McIntosh Seedlings and Garden Club, which also serves as the legal nonprofit umbrella. Longtime local resident Eva Jo Callahan has been behind the booth as club president for the last 15 years. Now, she is also on the festival’s board.
It was Callahan who told Stan Ferkul, the owner of 3 Season Growers Garden Center, about the opportunity to vendor at the festival three years ago. Ferkul, a native of Plant City in Hillsborough County, returns annually. But this year, his experience may be different. More than half of the 300 vendors participating are new to the festival, as many veteran sellers have retired or didn’t return after the pandemic, so the booth map needed to be reorganized, Giese said.
Ferkul said he expects his relocated space to be better for business. In the past, he was stationed far away from the street, which make it hard to carry his heavy plants, he said.
“That was a little bit of a problem,” he said. “Since these new people came in, they moved stuff around, and I’m by the street.”
The committee is also making small adjustments to improve the festival-goer experience, including adding ATMs and replacing cardboard garbage cans with reusable metal ones.
Melinda Meyer, a math teacher at Hawthorne Middle/High School, currently has some of the new trash bins stored in her two-car garage. Although she is not involved in the planning, Meyer said she has attended the festival since she moved into town over seven years ago.
“Most of the residents really enjoy it,” she said. “Even if they don’t attend the festival or walk around, just sitting out on their front porch, and watching all the people is just a fun thing to do.”
Meyer typically hosts guests from out of town and stocks up on handmade items like colorful rag rugs and kettle corn. Most of all, she likes not having to drive far away, she said.
She added, referring to the former committee: “The Friends have done it for so long that you kind of knew what to expect. I’m kind of excited to see what this new group is bringing in.”
As the new board freshens operations, the spirit of this year’s festival will remain the same: continuing the tradition of honoring old Florida, organizers said.
Mayor Alison Scott said that tradition has become part of the town itself and is worth carrying into the future.
“When you do anything for 50 years, it becomes part of your identity,” Scott said.