This weekend is Word of South, Tallahassee’s acclaimed literary and music festival. It’s now in its tenth year. We hear about the weekend’s line-up of acts from its founder, novelist Mark Mustian.
Most Tallahasseans know Mustian as a former city commissioner. But he’s also published a couple of novels, and the last one garnered invitations to speak at literary festivals. He’d never been to one, and he was impressed. But rather than create the Tallahassee version of another city’s event, Mustian wanted to do something different.
“So, we hit on the idea of doing books and music, and there’s really nothing like it in the country," he says. "I mean, if you Google book-and-music festival, you don’t really find anything. And so, we’re a very unique animal, we’ve gotten a lot of notoriety because of it, it’s been very successful, it’s grown every year, and I’m very proud of what we’ve done.”
The Flaming Lips will perform at the Adderley Amphitheater on Friday, Rising Appalachia will perform there Saturday, and the Blind Boys of Alabama will perform at the Salvation South Stage on Sunday.
“The ticketed show Friday night is the group The Flaming Lips, which a lot of people are super-excited about," says Mustian. "Apparently, they are playing in its entirety their Yoshimi album that is a classic. So, that should be fun, and then the rest of the weekend is free.”
A wide array of artists will perform on the ten stages throughout Saturday and Sunday. Mustian says Danny Bedrosian, George Clinton’s keyboardist, has written an anthology of P-Funk, and that Clinton and some other members of the band will play songs and talk about the band’s history.
www.wordofsouthfestival.com
