Creative Clay's Good Folk Fest is heading back to the St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club this Saturday, bringing live music, an art auction and shuffleboard to the historic Mirror Lake courts for a night that funds studio time and vocational training for artists with disabilities. The festival runs from 6 to 9 p.m. at 559 Mirror Lake Drive N, with the Betty Fox Band headlining the evening.
The event, first detailed by Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, returns to the Shuffleboard Club after Creative Clay celebrated its 30th anniversary last year at the historic St. Petersburg Coliseum, a 2025 milestone event that included hands-on art make-and-take projects and a painted instrument auction, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Before that stint downtown, the gathering traces back to 2007, when Creative Clay launched it as Folkfest St. Pete along Central Avenue to connect national and regional folk artists with the nonprofit's own member artists, per WMNF 88.5 FM.
A VIP meet and greet runs from 5 to 6 p.m. ahead of the main event, giving attendees a chance to meet Betty Fox before her band takes the stage for the full three-hour set, the Creative Loafing Tampa Bay report notes. Food trucks and a full bar run by Mickey's Café & Organics will be on site, and the night includes both dancing and the chance to play a round on the club's famous courts, per the same account.
A Century-Old Court Hosts a Modern Art Market
The Shuffleboard Club has hosted the game at its Mirror Lake property since 1924, and it is recognized as the world's oldest and largest shuffleboard club, with 65 masonry courts spread across a site that expanded during the 1920s and 1930s to include a clubhouse, grandstands and cue house, according to the St. Petersburg Catalyst. The club also shaped the sport itself: in 1928 it created the first standardized national rules for shuffleboard, including the 52-foot court specification that ended decades of conflicting regional variations across Florida, a standard later formally adopted by the National Shuffleboard Association founded in St. Petersburg in 1931, per the St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club's own history. The city designated the complex a local historic landmark on the St. Petersburg Register of Historic Places in 1994 and approved an internal historic marker plaque in December 2020, the Catalyst reports, noting the clubhouse's earliest section was designed in 1927 by architect Harry Cunningham.
At the center of Saturday's festival is an art auction featuring original pieces by Creative Clay's member artists, including works from the nonprofit's Iconic Landmarks of Tampa Bay collection, which has built a following among local collectors, according to Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. Member artists will also offer on-the-spot portraits and festival merchandise throughout the night. Every ticket sold supports Creative Clay programming that gives artists with disabilities studio time, instruction and opportunities, the outlet reports.
Thirty Years of Building Artists' Livelihoods
Creative Clay has served people with disabilities through art for three decades, since its 1995 founding, helping them build fuller lives through expressive, educational and vocational programs, per Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. The nonprofit started with a $1,000 grant from the Knights of Columbus and just three original clients before growing into a major community arts center serving 50 member artists in St. Petersburg today, according to the Northeast Journal.
Member artists earn a 50% commission whenever their original work sells through Creative Clay's Good Folk Gallery or at community events like Saturday's festival, and they work alongside professional teaching mentors five days a week in visual and performing arts, per Creative Clay's own program materials. Beyond festival sales, the nonprofit runs an Arts in Offices leasing program that places member artwork in local businesses such as Station House and Goodrich Wealth Planning, giving artists exposure and income throughout the year.
Creative Clay also partners with Pinellas County Schools on a vocational Transition Program that lets high school graduates ages 18 to 22 with intellectual disabilities defer their diplomas for up to four years while they learn art business, marketing and employment skills, according to Creative Pinellas. Students in the program focus on practical life and workplace skills built around creating and selling their own art. Creative Clay CEO Kim Dohrman framed Saturday's event as a celebration of the organization's talent and community, per Creative Loafing Tampa Bay.
Good Folk Fest 2026 tickets start at $50 and remain available ahead of Saturday's 6 p.m. start, according to the outlet. The festival returns to a Mirror Lake neighborhood that has itself seen major investment lately, with the new three-story, $59 million Bernie McCabe Second District Court of Appeal courthouse opening nearby in February, as Hoodline reported.
