Mayport Festival History

by Alec Newell

 

Mayport Village has been hosting outdoor entertainments since the first Mayport and All that Jazz Festival in 1980.   The Jazz Festival of 1981 was easily the largest festival the neighborhood ever participated in.  It was a one-day free concert that featured Dizzy Gillespie, Della Reese, Urbie Green, Art Blakey, and others, who performed on an outdoor stage near the ferry slip.  With an estimated 40,000 celebrants on hand that day, the one-day event had an enormous impact on the Mayport economy.  Singleton's Restaurant reckoned its canned beer sales for that day alone, not in six-packs or cases, but in pallets. 

 

Dizzie Gillespie and his signature horn

If memory serves, there was an aerial photograph in the Sunday paper, showing cars backed up from the Navy's back gate (Gate 5) past the Little Jetties, to the Sherman Creek Bridge on A-1-A.  Friends of mine, anticipating the large crowds, had decided that my house would be a good place to spent the night, and some pitched tents.  We dug an outdoor barbeque pit and roasted two whole 30 pound kingfish and a couple bags of oysters that Saturday.  We could look down Broad Street, and see the stage.  The free nonstop music lasted for 13 hours, and was compared to Woodstock by a Times-Union staff writer.  I don't know how long my party lasted, but I do remember stepping over several prone houseguests the next morning.  The event was so successful that it was transferred to Metropolitan Park the following year to better accommodate the large turnout.

Later that decade, Sandra Tuttle, Mayport's  Mother Teresa, organized several "reunions," that were planned to coincide with the traditional homecoming of the shrimp fleet in October.  They were held at the boat ramp near the old dock master's house. Younger members of the old village families returned to share old photos, rehear old stories, and catch up on family news over traditional Minorcan dishes and local seafood.

In the mid 1990's a Mayport - Ft. George Island, "New Ferry Seafood Festival" was organized to celebrate having the Jean Ribault  put into service.  The ship had been built by the new construction division of Atlantic Marine on Ft. George Island.  The festival locations straddled both sides of the St. Johns River, with the newly built Jean Ribault providing free transportation back and forth between the two locations.  When funding for the ferry became a political hot potato, several more festivals were organized to "save" the ferry.

In 2012 a French Commemorative Festival was organized to celebrate the 450th anniversary of Jean Ribault's historic landing in Mayport.  Two wooden replicas of 16th Century French sailing vessels and the French Ambassador were on hand to represent the government of France;  and Gaetan Ribault, a direct line descendant of the French Explorer, travelled from France to represent the Ribault Family.

About 15 years ago, a small festival and parade was organized as a fund-raiser for the Mayport Village Civic Association.  According to local tradition, Beanie Andreu, because of his starring role in Mule Skinner Blues, had been tapped to be the Grand Marshall of the parade that year.  Beanie, a retired merchant marine, shrimper, and aspiring celebrity, had been more than happy to oblige.  But Beanie's recent fame had not been without its pitfalls.  After years of sobriety, Beanie had a major slip from the water wagon and woke up the morning of the parade as the guest of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office lock-up.  Beanie managed to make a last minute arrival in time for the parade in the back of a squad car, chauffeured by two of Jacksonville's finest, with the blue lights flashing.