ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – The African-American heritage of the Nation’s oldest city will be celebrated with music, food and fun when the Lincolnville Festival returns to St. Augustine’s Historic Lincolnville on November 2-4, 2007.
The festival gets underway on Friday with live R&B music, food, arts and crafts. Saturday features narrated tours of Historic Lincolnville sites, live country/pop, jazz and dance music throughout the day and a special “Soul Food†contest. On Sunday, the day’s entertainment features great gospel music – along with more food and more fun.
Funds raised from the festival will go to the Fort Mose Historical Society — an organization dedicated to re-vitalizing Lincolnville and preserving Fort Mose. In 1738, the Spanish Governor of Florida Chartered Fort Mose as a settlement for freed Africans who had fled slavery in the British Carolinas. The only requirements for freedom for the Africans were to convert to Catholicism and to form a militia to protect St. Augustine, which they did. Consequently, Fort Mose is the first free African-American settlement in what is now known as the United States. The story of Fort Mose represents a story of courage, determination, and perseverance. The stories of Africans fleeing to freedom and of Native Americans who aided them, as well as tales of the many other people touched by Fort Mose will inspire everyone who visits the new Fort Mose Historical Interactive Museum scheduled to open in 2008.
To read more about the festival, click here!
Historic Lincolnville is one of the oldest African-American communities in the United States with more than half of its buildings dating from the late 19th century. Held on Washington Street in historic Lincolnville, admission to the Festival is free. Festival hours are Friday, 3 to10 p.m.; Saturday, noon to 10 p.m.; and Sunday 1 to 6 p.m. For more information, call Derek B. Hankerson at 904.540.1636.
The Lincolnville Festival is funded in part by a grant from the St. Johns County Tourist Development Council. For more information on events and vacation opportunities in St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra & The Beaches, go to the Visitors and Convention Bureau website www.getaway4florida.com or call 1.800.653.2489.