Latest / Rick Outzen: (we don’t) color on the dog / Inside Foo Foo Fest 2026
Transcript
- Rick Outzen: Welcome back. I'm Rick Alton. This is Rick's blog live. We're coming to the up on the end of October. This it's Foo Foo Fest time. And we've got with us past chair, Therese McKinsey. Therese, thank you so much for coming Foo Foo Past Chair Therese McKenzie: I love your hat. Rick Outzen: on. thank you. Yeah. Free advertising. Tell me, you know, for listeners who don't know, what is FooFoo? Foo Foo Past Chair Therese McKenzie: So Fufu is a annual festival. This is our thirteenth year that we're doing it, and it's a celebration of arts, culture, and entertainment. every year we give out grants as the event organizer. Fufu Fest is presented by Ace every year, which is a local nonprofit organization, and we receive funding from the county, the state, and also from the city of Pensacola. And we grip give out grants every year to different organizations to put on a special event. during Fufu Festival. So that's what makes Fufu Festival unique, that it's typically different every year. In different events, right? So it's always twelve days during the first two weekends of usually end of October going into November. Rick Outzen: And we're able to wrap in the Great Gulf Coast Arts Festival as well as the Blue Angels Fall, their their last show of the year all kind of get wrapped up into it. the different nonprofits in the community put in requests for inf you know, for money or programs they'd like to put on. but I think the thing I wanted to ask you is you could get involved in a lot of things, and you are involved in a lot of things. Why did you want to get involved in Foo Foo? What what attracted you? Foo Foo Past Chair Therese McKenzie: well, I joined the Ace Board and was pretty shortly thereafter asked to join the Fufu Fest committee. It's part of the Ace Board. And seeing the impact that it has on the community, not only in terms of bringing tourism to the county, obviously great economic impact for for the community, but also seeing just local people out there and enjoying these events and seeing behind the scenes all the hard work from all our Fabulous nonprofit org arts nonprofit profit organizations and all the work that they pour into it. And then actually getting to see it from start to finish and then going and attending these events. It's just really special. Rick Outzen: And it really is c a celebration of the community's art. Foo Foo Past Chair Therese McKenzie: Exactly. We have so much to offer in Pixsa Cola and it's a time for Pixsa Cola to essentially show off. Show everybody what we've got. Rick Outzen: Because it and it it's ACE is an offshoot of the old Northwest Florida Arts Council. and David Baer was one of the founders of ACE to put that together, arts, culture, and entertainment. the you've been involved for a while. You you're you've you were past, you were the chairman last last year when I interviewed you. What over the years, what's what are one or two events that you're really proud of that y'all sponsored? Foo Foo Past Chair Therese McKenzie: I really I've always enjoyed night moves. I thought that was really special. when they did it. It's a little different this year, but when they've done it down at Maritime Park in the past, just being on the bay. I mean, that's a beautiful venue. Just being there seeing all the people, you know, so I've really enjoyed those. And you know, I it's always a fan favorite, but friends of downtown where they're with their visual arts display that's open to the public. That's always that's always a that's always a favorite. Rick Outzen: Yeah, they've done, we've they did the parasols, which became such a huge deal. They did the balloons or the bubbles. and they've always done something really strong visually. UWF painted the trees blue. You know, it and then the year that they filmed on at night filmed on top of the Artel Gallery, where you got to see the hipp you got to see the history of Pensacola. in a vignette, and people speak out and be different characters. So i it really and there's plenty for kids, it's just such a multidimensional, multimedia type event in it. Foo Foo Past Chair Therese McKenzie: Well, that's what we try to do every year, to bring something in that will, tailor to all sorts of interests and likes. So I mean it's family oriented events this year. Ballet Pensacola is doing Carnival of the Animals. So it's going to be an original ballet and they're partnering with the Humane Society, so there's going to be puppies at the ballet. Who doesn't want to go to a ballet and see puppies? Right. Rick Outzen: Right. Foo Foo Past Chair Therese McKenzie: My son is looking forward to that one. We're going to that one. Rick Outzen: Yeah, where during Foo Foo we're our office is the headquarters for the street teams where they meet every day and go out and and get it so it's fun to be and see their excitement, see people's excitement about the events. you're stepping down as chair. what's your advice for the new chair? Foo Foo Past Chair Therese McKenzie: Ooh. Just keep on trucking. No, we have so much fun. It's a very small committee. there's seven of us that are on the committee and we are a very close group and everybody works really, really hard. Every single person that's involved with ACE and also with the Fifth F S committee is one hundred percent volunteers volunteers. Right. But it's a passion project for all of us and we really love what we do and it shows. Rick Outzen: It really does. And and and you're looking at you know, the the grant process is very structured. It's it's done on a point system, it's done all in the transparent and in the public eye. Right. Is that's done. there and there's always I've always been encouraged because y'all have always looked to try to do something new, maybe help a a new organization that's trying to do something, try to guide them because it's that variety that makes it special, don't you think? Foo Foo Past Chair Therese McKenzie: Exactly. And that is what we're trying to do too. And every year after the festival we have a meeting with a committee and we sit down and we go over everything. What worked, what didn't work, what can we fix in terms of maybe the grant application process, even the scorecard, how can we improve year to year? Rick Outzen: Now, besides the puppies, what else are you looking forward to out of this year's festival? Foo Foo Past Chair Therese McKenzie: Motion City's soundtrack is coming to the handlebar, which is part of Night Moves. So Night Moves is a little different this year than it has been for the past two years. So rather than doing a one day festival at Maritime Park, it's going to be spread out during the duration of Foo Foo Festival. So there's different artists at different venues throughout the festival. Rick Outzen: Songwriters Festival, how they try to do that. Foo Foo Past Chair Therese McKenzie: Yeah, so it's going to be I think they have some events at the Hindle Bar, Odd Colony, and also for the first time ever, we're gonna have a Food Food Fest event at the beach. It's going to be a show out at Laguna, so we're really excited about that one. Rick Outzen: you look at this as thirteen years. It started is is trying to even explain what foo foo was in the beginning, and now you look at you're at thirteen. where do you where do you go from here? That's sort of the beauty of it, isn't it? Foo Foo Past Chair Therese McKenzie: now it's well I'm still the president of Ace, so I'm doing that for And then I'll see what happens after that. Rick Outzen: Yeah, it's it i it's a fascinating festival that really celebrates Pensacola. And I and I don't know of anyone who's doing anything close to this anywhere around us. Foo Foo Past Chair Therese McKenzie: Well, because it's unlike any other festivals because it is different every year. Rick Outzen: Yeah. And we've got just the the wealth of cultural organizations that we have to be able to a PLT, a ballet company, a symphony, you know, to have someone like Robert Goodspeed with the handlebar being able to put on a festival like Night you know, you know, Nightmares. So it it's just all those things clicking and and and working are just really great. Foo Foo Past Chair Therese McKenzie: Yeah, the Pensacola Museum of Art has a grant this year too. So and the Bal the Opera, the Symphony, and then also Mess Hall got a grant this year. So they have an event. And then obviously Light Spill is the Friends of Downtown Visual Public Art Display this year. So it's going to be mirrored spheres cascading down the side of Artel Gallery. I call them discovols because that's what I look like. Well I'm really excited to see what that's actually. Rick Outzen: what's Another great selfie moment for sure. Therese, thank you so much for coming on. I appreciate it. Thank you for all your volunteering for the community. We'll go ahead and take a break. I'm Rick Outson. We're Rick's blog live. We'll be right back.