By Jesse Farthing
Peace Fest is coming back to Pensacola for a fourth non-consecutive year, though organizers this year say they are hoping to make it a yearly event from here on out. Longhollow Park, across from Open Books, will serve as the backdrop for this gathering of local artists and activist groups involved with social change movements on Oct. 26 from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Entertainment will begin at noon with local poets, speakers and a variety of different bands taking to the grass to promote their causes. Patriot X, Q, Jackie Olive and several other local poets will be doing readings and musicians such as Kent Stanton and Mad Happy will play. Sluggo’s will provide food to hungry festivalgoers throughout the day.
Organized by the Unitarian Universalist Church of Pensacola and Open Books, Peace Fest promises to be educational, fun and family-friendly event with “a strong emphasis on social justice in our community.â€
“You can broaden the idea of peace beyond the cessation of violence,†Scott Satterwhite, one of the organizers this year, said. “It’s also an idea that people need certain things to live happy lives, and this is kind of an extension to it.â€
Peace Fest has roots that run as far back as 2007 or 2008, according to Satterwhite and co-organizer Chris Smith-Doyle, when some local groups were looking to have an extension of sorts of Earth Day events and festivals that would focus beyond environmental change and more toward issues of peace and justice, but there has not been a Peace Fest for the last three years.
Previous incarnations of Peace Fest have had specific focuses, like issues in Darfur or the war in Iraq, but this year’s rebirth will not focus on any specific thing, and instead will serve as a gathering place for Pensacola’s social justice community that is, according to Satterwhite, “somewhat fractured.â€
Some of the social justice groups that will have a presence at Peace Fest include Food Not Bombs, the League of Women Voters, Movement for Change, the University of West Florida’s Progressive Student Alliance and many others.
“Quite often there are new groups that pop up, that maybe we are not in touch with, or who don’t know there are other things going on,†Satterwhite said. “People in the community too – it’s very common for people to think that nothing is happening or nothing ever happened or nothing ever happens, but there has been a long history of activism in Pensacola.â€
Satterwhite said the he is hoping that if they are able to start doing this regularly, then all of the splintered groups out there will become more aware of one another and be better able to cooperate together on similar goals.
Though Peace Fest will have a lot going on, from music to art and children’s activities, it will still be a low-key event without any stages or other over-production. Musicians will be playing acoustic sets in the open air of the park.
“My punk background has made me sort of skeptical of stages,†Satterwhite said. “It’s better to have people on your level.â€
Satterwhite and Smith-Doyle said they are hoping for a large turnout this year and have plans to make it grow in the future.
“It might be low key, but it’s low key with big ambitions,†he said.
Peace Fest will take place, rain or shine, at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 26. at Longhollow Park, 1040 N Guillemard St