Leave Forsyth Park to tourists. Let's invest in local festivals at more accessible Daffin Park

Talk to any Savannah arts organization leader nowadays about their vision and one word will come up: accessibility.

Arts organizations want to engage more directly with both newer and longtime residents outside of the traditional venues and across the city to reach more than just those who frequent downtown.

Take for instance this year's Savannah Music Festival. The organization expertly utilized a rather under-utilized musical space in the Trustees' Garden at Kehoe Ironworks for a number of their shows. Among the ones I attended included the Vijay Iyer Trio, Les Filles de Illighadad and one of Philip Dukes' classical concerts. But the one that I remember most vividly was the duo of Lakou Mizik and Leyla McCalla.

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Both acts were based on their mutual Haitian roots with McCalla adding a mix of  Southern influences, including those of her current hometown of New Orleans. Her folk ensemble reverberated through those attending as she worked from a playlist developed from her recent work in her family's native land and with a voice and guitar that transported you to New Orleans' French Quarter.

But the real showstopper was Lakou Mizik. This ensemble of Haitian men left just about everyone in the audience shaken. People leapt up and danced. Everyone clapped along –– there hasn't been a show, especially in Savannah, that felt so communal in a long time.

Too bad, there weren't many there to see it.

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Which begs the question: how can we make an experience like that accessible to everyone? How can middle class families from Parkside or Ardsley Park join with the more working class roots of the East Side along Waters Avenue?

And how can all of them dance and sing to this world-class music and entertainment?

An outdoor, all-inclusive festival is a start, but we have to get Forsyth Park out of our minds. That land belongs to the tourists and the transient students now. In order to make this work, and have the community impact these leaders strive for, more arts programming needs to go to Daffin Park.

Make Daffin 'the People's Park' once again

We're not starting a revolution by calling for Daffin to used and enjoyed as a public meeting ground. It's how the park was conceived in 1907.

Designed by John Nolen, Daffin Park was created to become Savannah's first significant green space in the 20th century. According to the city archives, Nolen's plan included open green spaces, promenades lined by trees, areas for recreation and even a school. Most of these dreams came to fruition, though I doubt he anticipated the detours to the park in the early 1900s when it briefly featured an automobile racing track and an airfield.

Over its 115-year history, Daffin has held a spot as a place for the community to gather. As the years passed, a swimming pool, tennis and volleyball courts, and other amenities were added.

Daffin hosted portions of the 1996 Olympics and now draws crowds with the nationally recognized Savannah Bananas in Grayson Stadium, a sports cathedral that previously hosted baseball greats such as Babe Ruth, Shoeless Joe Jackson and Hank Aaron.

"(Daffin Park) has always provided a great utility for the city as it's evolved and is really a proving ground for new activities," District 4 Alderman Nick Palumbo said.

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Palumbo, who's district covers Daffin, added that the adaptability of the park has lent itself to these different events. "The park is a great meeting ground, and the city always encourages people to use it in different ways."

That adaptability is key. On any given day, you'll catch people walking or jogging around the track, pickleballers ensnared in a deathmatch on the tennis courts, youth football teams logging hours either on the green space or in the football stadium, and the dog park at Daffin's southeastern end has become the place for pups and their humans to play.

Palumbo adds that the city is continuing to improve Daffin Park, including resurfacing the clay courts for tennis, adding more than $7,000 in enhancements to the dog park, and overhauling the playground area along with the restrooms and facilities.

Forget Forsyth. Move our activities over to Daffin.

While Daffin continues to improve itself in terms of facilities and amenities, it probably will never catch up with the pedigree of Forsyth Park. Take a look at anything tourism-related in Savannah and the iconic fountain pops up as a symbol of the city.

It also becomes the hub to every event. As we just welcomed the return of the Savannah Jazz Festival and look ahead to Phil in the Park, Forsyth also plays host to the weekly Forsyth Farmer's Market, carries one of the highlight events leading to the annual Savannah St. Patrick's Day Parade and is the go-to location for national events to celebrate Fourth of July or Memorial Day.

According to Susan Broker, director of the City of Savannah's Office of Special Events, film and tourism, they wish Daffin could pick up these events and future ones. "We try really hard when people come to (the city) with new events...we really try and encourage them to use Daffin," she said.

"Because Forsyth is saturated. A lot of times we can't convince them. They just want to be right, smack downtown. Even though Daffin has decent parking (and) it's in the middle of the city in a great location, we just don't get the interest."

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So, if you're planning an event in Forsyth, the question is who are you trying to bring to the table? Residentially, the area around the park has lost a massive density of locals and has shifted more towards Airbnbs and short-term vacation rentals, making nearby houses obsolete because it's a transitory population.

Outside of that transitory population, there is a lack in public transportation to bring other residents from around town. Some might point to the DOT shuttle from CAT, but those will only benefit anyone north of the park, which again — tourists.

If the goal is accessibility, then that needs to be geared more toward accessibility to the taxpayers of the county rather than the weekenders and keychain buyers. To that point, Daffin creates access to the Waters Avenue corridor, along with better access to Eastside residents near Victory Drive. It also taps into the Parkside, Ardsley and Edgemere-Sackville communities, which host residents who might be more eager to walk and spend the day at a festival rather than joining the fight to get near Forsyth.

Pushback from residents near Daffin would probably come, but Broker said they aren't unfamiliar with that. The emergence of the Savannah Bananas caused a stir that has since dissipated in the following years.

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"I think that the residents on that front of the park on Washington Avenue, there might be some pushback there for (a festival). There definitely was when the Bananas started to get really popular, (and) the noise and the parking. Parkside neighborhood was not very happy with all that. So, we had to really work hard to get folks that were coming to the games to not park in the residential streets because that became a neighborhood-based issue."

Broker said other concerns that might arise are with lighting concerns or problems with parking and amenities, but those are both extremely fixable problems that could be solved quickly with the backing of a major festival in place.

"I think it's a mindset thing for a lot of Savannah. (Daffin) is out of downtown and, therefore, it is somehow not accessible; or it doesn't have the optics, maybe. I think it's a lot of that that's getting people to use Forsyth more."

Screw the optics

Optics be damned.

If we want to create a more inclusive and accessible arts and culture scene, we have to bring it to where people are. While the people that may be generating profit for some in Savannah are in Forsyth, the vast majority of locals aren't there.

It is the Savannah Music Festival, the Savannah Philharmonic, the Savannah Jazz Festival, etc. and so on.

We have to stop curtailing our culture to fit the bottom line of the tourism P&L and make events for the people who live here. Let's start by developing a true, entertainment destination in the people's park.

Zach Dennis is the editor of the arts and culture section, and weekly Do Savannah alt-weekly publication at the Savannah Morning News. He can be reached at zdennis@savannahnow.com or 912-239-7706.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah should look to Daffin Park for more culture events, festivals