History

Shirley Caesar at the Festival for the Eno

Much has happened since the excerpts below were written to mark the 15th Anniversary of the Festival for the Eno. A major flood in 1995 came close to shutting down the Festival, but because of the exhausting hours volunteers and staff spent moving stages and crafters, the large crowd that showed up still had a party to attend. Two years ago, the ill-advised (and misleadingly named) Eno Drive once again reared its ugly head, prompting the Eno River Association to gird itself for battle. More than 4,000 names were collected on petitions during that Festival and the Association's Eno Drive Committee has made itself very vocal since. The year 1997 also marked the rebirth of "Writers in the Park" as the Spoken Word Stage, a concept now copied at festivals across the country. Our 1998 Festival broke records at the gate--both in attendance and in money raised. Some 40,000 Festival-goers helped to generate more than $100,000 for land acquisition and protection, which the Eno River Association then used to help purchase the "King Tract" near the old Durham Pump Station for future inclusion in the Eno River State Park. In 1999, thousands braved the hottest 4th of July on record to celebrate together the 20th Festival for the Eno, and last  July 4th saw  the largest attendance ever at the Festival for the Eno.       Perhaps the most significant event in our Festival world since these memories were written down is the loss of their author, Margaret C. Nygard, the founder and guiding light of the Association, who died November 5, 1995. While her absence is still acutely felt, the Association's board has worked to follow her mission: to complete the Master Plan for the Eno River State Park and thereby protect the whole Eno River Valley. Because of an overwhelming grassroots response, this year has seen hopes that the State Park may be spared the destructive impact of Eno Drive. A grand success that would have pleased Margaret to no end is the dedication of Hillsborough's Occoneechee Mountain as a satellite park to the Eno River State Park, on Tuesday, July 20, 1999, at 10 am.

    About the origins of the Festival for the Eno, Margaret C. Nygard wrote: "On July 4, 1980, when the first buses rolled out for the first Festival for the Eno from the County Stadium and Fairfield Meadow at 9:50 and 9:51 respectively, they carried a crowd to West Point on the Eno for a single day of entertainment on two stages by the river. Moving off at 7 and 12 minute intervals, they brought about 12,000 people back and forth before the last bus returned at 7:30 that night. Tickets cost $1.00, and children under 6 were free. The Pepsi's and cartons of lemonade (guaranteed less than 5% natural) sold at 3 stands for 50 cents a piece. There were egg rolls, fried chicken, fish, Polynesian barbecue, souvlaki, ham biscuits, and baked goods from the Animal Protection Society. Ten toilets lined the pathway to the Mill. Tours and demonstrations were held at the Mill, the House and the Blacksmith's shop, arts and crafts under the trees and wading in the river. Trish Kohler, Volunteer Coordinator, organized 100 volunteers to park the cars, take the tickets, run errands, and sell the drinks.

    The large stage in the meadow, with the Great Blue Heron backdrop, was designed in modular units by Cliff Rappaport and built for the occasion by the City of Durham. The little stage in the grove behind the Packhouse had been left from the State Folklife Festival of 1978. Our staff in 1980 was made up of friends from the Folklife Festivals of '76 and '78. Amy Davis, Coordinator, Marti Bowditch, Concessions, and Glenn Hinson, Master of Ceremonies, gave us courage to risk the $10,000 we had budgeted for the event. The program they put together was modeled on those earlier popular folklife festivals. It was largely traditional with a capella singing, story telling, hamboning, and a roster of 16 performances featuring the Red Clay Ramblers at the center of the day and a square dance at the finish. The entire program was written out with magic marker on a single piece of yellow posterboard.

    When the risk was run and the Festival returns were counted, we found that we had grossed $23,000 and netted $13,000, an encouraging return. In 1981, after the second hazardous Festival which was almost rained out, we conveyed a check for $25,000 to the State made up of returns from the first two Festivals plus individual gifts. Matched with Federal funds, our money helped the State to purchase 18 acres of the land at Old Durham Pump Station, one of the most precious areas in Eno River State Park.

    Each person will have a different set of recollections [about the Festival for the Eno]. Some will recall the affectionate crowds that filled the Meadow and the Grove very time Doc Watson came to sing, the authority of Etta Baker's guitar, the cool voice of Doris Betts as she read to us under the shade of the trees at the Grove Stage from Heading West, the Badgett Sisters singing "Travelling Shoes," the pride we felt in 1985 when we published our first 20 page Festival Supplement, Frank Profitt's mastery over the entire meadow as he described the maggots "like a bowlful of rive moving" that crawled through the skull of the Missing Bride, the smoldering mass of compost, organic waste from the 1992 Festival that Wayne Cash kept a thermometer reading on a Penny's Bend, George Pyne's triumphal crossing of the Causeway (which was underwater) with his Bourbon Cake held high, the panoramic dance around Patrick Dougherty's beehive sculpture, the honorary escort of proud sheriff's deputies that led Emmylou Harris like a queen bee to the Meadow Stage for her second completely different magnificent performance.

    Such inspirational memories make us aware that the Festival for the Eno has a dimension far beyond the funds it raises for parklands. When the Eno River Association considered the results of the first Festival in the Fall of 1980, Caroline Long, the Festival's first Treasurer, listed the following "positive" findings:
 

• The Festival keeps us before the public as a forceful, energetic and effective organization.
• The Festival keeps us before the politicians as capable of rounding up public support from all areas of the community, corporate and private.
• The Festival gets us more money that any other fundraising efforts and more publicity.
• The Festival is a vehicle for expressing our goals to the public. It gives the media that opportunity and a positive atmosphere and position to report from.
• The Festival involves the community in our goals for the Eno.
• Land acquisition needs are more urgent if the park is to be a reality. The Festival provides a forum for airing those needs to the public and the politicians and a  means of putting your money where your mouth is.