A fall getaway to the…coast? Yes, the Gulf Coast of Florida. Pensacola’s Foo Foo Festival returns October 29 for its 13th year, with 12 days of art, music, theater, dance and more taking place across this charming, historic beach town. Festival regulars just call it “Foo,” and if you’re planning to join them this year, pack accordingly: flip-flops for the beach, walking shoes for exploring downtown and getting lost in the museum, something sophisticated for the opera and something funky for all the live music.
This year’s theme, “Foo for the Soul,” feels fitting for a festival built around the idea that art speaks to everyone differently. Maybe your soul craves a night of pop-punk and alternative music at a street block party. Maybe it’s an afternoon of contemporary art, where weather data becomes sculpture and music. Or maybe it’s something altogether less expected: Ai-Da, the world’s first ultra-realistic robot artist, who will travel from Cambridge, England, to make only her second U.S. appearance. For 12 days, the idea is simply to find what lights you up, with events unfolding in museums and theaters, on city streets, at historic landmarks and even at the beach.
Speaking of lighting up, start your Foo itinerary with Lightspill, a larger-than-life installation from Friends of Downtown Pensacola. Lightspill will transform the façade of the historic Artel Gallery with hundreds of shimmering silver spheres spilling down its stately white columns, over the awning and onto the lawn. Come back (with your camera) at night, when the spheres will be lit up like strands of giant incandescent pearls. The installation arrives just as downtown shows off an $11 million refresh of Palafox Street. Think wider sidewalks and new landscaping making a stroll through the heart of Pensacola even lovelier. Walker Wilson, Executive Director of the Pensacola Downtown Improvement Board, adds that Foo also coincides with the annual lighting of downtown’s holiday lights, giving Palafox a little extra sparkle after dark.
Foo has always made room for all kinds of creativity, and this year Pensacola State College is asking a decidedly twenty-first century question of festival goers: Can a computer create art? Synthetic Creativity: Ai-Da Unveiled welcomes Ai-Da, the world’s first ultra-realistic robot artist, to Pensacola for a series of events centered on art and artificial intelligence. Often seen with her signature black bob, well-worn denim overalls and mechanical arms, Ai-Da looks more like an art-school student from a sci-fi rom-com than a robot.
“We wanted to go big this year,” says Debbie Douma, Dean of Grants & Federal Programs at Pensacola State College. “AI is so prevalent in academia, and Ai-Da being an artist was a twist we hadn’t seen before.”
Created in 2019, Ai-Da uses cameras in her eyes, AI algorithms and a robotic arm to draw and paint what she sees. At Foo, festivalgoers can watch Ai-Da create live at the historic Saenger Theatre on November 2, then get a closer look at her work during a free exhibition, artist talk and Q&A at Pensacola State College later in the week.
Night Moves, the nonprofit organization behind much of Pensacola’s live music scene, is a Foo favorite, and this year it’s getting bigger. “We wanted to grow beyond one day,” says Night Moves Director Robert Goodspeed. This year’s Night Moves Music Fest lineup expands across a full week and multiple Pensacola venues, making room for nearly 20 acts instead of the four or five featured in years past. Headliners include pop-punk favorites Motion City Soundtrack and The Linda Lindas, alongside the throwback soul of Neal Francis. Goodspeed is particularly excited to bring dark-wave band Night Sins, with a sound he describes as “spooky but poppy,” to a Halloween-night EDM show on the beach.
But this is hardly the whole festival. The Pensacola Museum of Art brings artists and scientists together, including a participatory installation of 1,400 paper birds. Families can Foo, too: Ballet Pensacola’s Carnival of the Animals pairs young dancers with elaborate costumes and puppetry, culminating in a Parade of Animals featuring adoptable puppies from the Pensacola Humane Society. The MESS Hall takes science outside with hands-on explorations along Palafox. There’s even a Costume Repair Station at the Westside Library.
Opera, punk, robots, puppies, paper birds: there’s no one way to Foo. Come for whatever speaks to your soul, leave room for whatever feeds it.
