Features: Allen's Historical Cafe: The Bluegrass Festivals

A BRIEF HISTORY

The story goes, that it was a Thursday night in 1976, when Carl Allen got the idea to do a bluegrass festival using a competition format. He recalled, "I asked the boys pickin' at the cafe if they'd like to come up and try to be the state champion, and they said that sounded good to them".
On March 4th and 5th, 1977, Carl held that first festival (called the First Annual Bluegrass and Fiddler's Jamboree) in the middle of the street in downtown Auburndale. The event drew an attendance of approximately one to two thousand people.
The following year, Allen moved the event about a block west to the city park in downtown Auburndale. With its traditional gazebo bandstand and shady oak trees, the square was a tailor made site for a bluegrass festival. Carl dubbed that second festival "The Florida State Championship Bluegrass Festival" -- which some of his detractors took issue with -- but the name stuck just the same.
For one year, 1981, the festival was held at the Auburndale Municipal Beach. It didn't work out near as well as it had been hoped and the following year the festival was back downtown in the park.
Over the next several years, the festival grew in attendance and picker participation. Although the park served well for those many years, the railroad tracks running through it occasionally made for some difficult listening. When Amtrak's Silver Meteor rumbled through,

mouths moved, picks flailed and fiddle bows sawed but no sound was heard.
Eventually the festival outgrew the old park and in 1994, Allen moved it to the grounds of a large flea market west of town where there was more room for cars and motor-homes With the help of "Market World" owner, Vincent To, and preacher David Wine, who donated the tents, the Florida State Championship Bluegrass Festival became a much bigger event. Some attendance estimates had exceeded the higher tens of thousands of people over the three days. For the last two years of Carl's life, the festival was combined with a hot air balloon race sponsored by Sunrise Community, a home for handicapped children.
The festival had suffered its share of bad weather over the years. One year the tent blew down in the middle of the night, resulting in the competition having to be concluded in the restaurant. Another horrendous March storm created a lake under the tent and forced the evening music program into the indoor food court of the flea market.
As the festival grew over the years, Allen remained adamant about one thing: it was a free event. "This is the only free festival I know of. We do it all on donations. We just pass the hat and try to make expenses. It all goes to prize money anyway. I don't make a dime on it." Allen's philosophy of a free festival had its root in his concern for old folks. For years he sponsored an Old Timers' Day at the restaurant— a day of free food and entertainment for the old settlers of the area. "The older people are working on fixed incomes," he explained, "They just got so much money and can't have no more. I figured if we could do the state championship here and take up a collection, then we could offer a free show, and it wouldn't cost the older folks anything. It's worked."
Although Carl never talked about it much, there were many times when the donations didn't cover the expenses and the shortfall came out of his pocket. The important thing to him was that the show went on.
Allen explained his dedication to bluegrass in simple terms. He did it as much for fun as anything. He loved the music, he loved watching his "boys" develop as musicians and he loved "bluegrass people." Allen felt strongly that as a group, bluegrassers are a bastion of honesty and decency in a troubled society.
Carl Allen's death at the age of 78 came only one week after the 20th Annual Florida State Championship Bluegrass Festival.

At this writing, the festival is still being held at Market World each year, but with the absence of Carl Allen -- for better or worse -- it'll never be the same.

FESTIVAL MEMORIES

Click a date to see memories of that year's festival.
(NOTE: A few pages are still incomplete)