What institutions, images, or events define St. Petersburg? Today one might answer with museums, murals, and car races. For almost a century before, the answer would likely have been tourist societies, Mr. Sun, and the Festival of States.
Cooked up as a way to keep tourists in the city beyond Easter, the Festival of States was a mash-up of parties, pageants, and parades meant to entertain and create a sense of civic pride in a city with few native inhabitants. Its signature parade featured floats from nearly every state, and later, the country’s best high school marching bands. Its demise almost 10 years ago marked the end of an era in the Sunshine City.
Origins
The first Festival of States took place in 1917, but its roots extend back to 1896 when the first Washington’s Birthday Celebration was hosted with a parade by local schoolchildren. The event proved so popular that it continued until 1912, when the school board decided it was taking up too much of students’ time.
Concurrently, beginning in 1900, the Mid-Winter Fair Association hosted an annual extravaganza featuring exhibitors, music, and activities in a newly built exhibition hall. These two events would morph into St. Petersburg’s longest running city event.
The First Festival of States
The term “Festival of States” entered the St. Petersburg lexicon in 1917. This new event would be closely tied to the tourist societies that had become all the rage in St. Pete. The first was formed in 1902 to provide social activities for tourists and winter residents hailing from Illinois. Other states and regions quickly followed suit, the New England Society forming in 1902, Michigan in 1907, and New York and New Jersey in 1909. By 1924, more than 12,000 members were enrolled in one of the clubs, alternately called “state societies” or “tourist societies.” Not surprisingly, in the strictly segregated city of St. Petersburg, all of those 12,000 members were white.
The first Festival of States included band concerts, a grand parade, a costume ball, a confetti battle, and the crowning of a king and queen (selected by ballot, which cost a penny per vote.) World War I precluded a follow-up, but by 1922 the festival was back, and the city and the chamber of commerce committed to making it an annual event to extend the tourist season.
Festival Features
At the beginning of the festival each year, the mayor would turn over the keys of the city to the head of the tourist societies, proclaiming that the city “belonged to the tourists!” Sports were a major focus, with audiences enjoying a mix of baseball spring training games, shuffleboard competitions, dog races, air shows, softball games, and more. Concerts and dancing were regular occurrences. In 1926, the festival concluded with the grand opening of the new Million Dollar Pier.
Beginning in the late 1930s an elaborate pageant was performed at Round Lake. A grand stage was built, gondolas floated groups of singers around the lake, lights and sound systems were rigged up, and shows with casts of 750 people were presented. In 1939 the pageant drew a crowd of 5,000 people.
The festival went on hiatus during World War II and then celebrated its Silver Jubilee in 1946, with activities that included the “world’s largest open-air card party” with some 5,000 people playing bridge, rummy, and chess. That same year, 43 high school bands from around the state took part in competitive events and marched in the parade.
Change is Coming
By the 1950s, the tourist societies were losing members as shopping centers and the beaches presented other forms of entertainment. In 1957, the chamber of commerce determined that it could no longer manage the workload of the festival. In response, a group of business leaders formed the Suncoasters of St. Petersburg, an organization dedicated exclusively to producing the Festival of States.
It wasn’t the only change that the festival saw in the 1950s. In 1954, after years of restricting black citizens’ participation in festival activities, the newly formed Ambassadors Club entered a float in the parade. Comprising the city’s most prominent African-American men, the mission of the Ambassadors Club was to improve conditions in the African-American community of St. Petersburg. The entry of the float, featuring pageant contestants from the black community, was a leap forward for the segregated city that had allowed a Ku Klux Klan float in the 1920s.
Here Come the Bands!
As state society floats dwindled, they were replaced by an increasing number of high school marching bands from around the country. In an era when downtown was becoming a ghost town, the Festival of States brought it to life every spring with as many as 20 marching bands parading through city streets.
The Suncoasters continuously added new features to keep the Festival fresh. Lasting legacies like the Mainsail Art Festival, Rib Fest, and the Second Time Arounders Band all got their start as part of the Festival of States.
Mr. Sun and the Sun Goddesses
The tradition of crowning a Festival King and Queen evolved in the 1950s to the crowning of Mr. Sun and a Sun Goddess. Modern sensibilities bristle at the notion of recognizing an older white man for his civic contributions and a young white woman for her charm and poise, but the practice continued for decades. The first African-American member of the Suncoasters, Emanuel Stewart, was admitted in the 1970s and later became the first Mr. Sun in 1986. Not until the 1990s could a woman join the Suncoasters. The first Ms. Sun, Mary Wyatt Alan, was chosen in 1996.
The End of an Era
Many factors contributed to the end of the Festival of States. Dwindling funding from the city and local corporations, limited budgets for traveling bands, the increasing cost of elaborate parade floats, and the changing tastes of the public led to the death of one of St. Petersburg’s longest traditions in 2014. The Suncoasters disbanded in 2018.
What began 1896 with a parade to honor the first president grew into an event that defined a city for generations. What might a reimagined Festival of States look like today? Perhaps we’ll find out some day.
