While time and the government destroyed much of the psychedelic, artsy mystique of 70s culture, it's still alive and well in small pockets around the world. There are still places free of care or prejudice, where music fills the air and art is all around. The Blueberry Patch in Gulfport, Florida. functions as one of these windows to the past, almost like an open time capsule left for us by the beat generation. And on June 7, the Blueberry Patch celebrates its 40th anniversary.
Founded on “7/7/77,” the Patch’s late owner Dallas Bohrer sought to share his message of “Sharevival” with the greater Tampa Bay area. “Dallas actually coined the term ‘Sharevival’ a long time ago. It basically means that we need to share to survive and survive to share,” Bob Feckner, a current board member at the Patch, said. Even to this day, the Patch still functions off the same dogma.
Feckner says the Patch moved around the Bay area a number of times. It even called the Merry Pier in St. Pete home before occupying a backyard shed that eventually expanded into an adjacent property on the other side of the fence.
While the Patch has grown and changed even more since then, Dallas’s spirit lives on in the Patch’s repurposed art. Dallas was always a fan of recycling materials for art, according to the current president of the Board of Directors at the patch, Douglas DeLorey, “[Dallas] built everything here out of old pallets, that stage, the benches. Dallas was a palletoligist.”
Winner of last year’s Best of The Bay award for Best Open Mic (Poetry) the Patch proclaims themselves as “Florida’s Longest Surviving Artist’s Retreat. Douglas describes the Blueberry Patch as, “[a] place where artists, be they in the material form or through music, can come together and hone their abilities.”
While the Blueberry Patch does bring in a variety of artists to grace its homemade stage, the venue offers a plethora of options for attendees to get on stage as well. Between constant open mics for comedy, poetry and the Patch’s frequent open jams where people are invited to bring their own instruments, the place encourages an open flow of creativity from all. Even when the Blueberry Patch hosts a featured band for the night, they set out paint and canvases next to the stage for participants to freely co-create art together on their Paint at the Patch nights.
Come join in the festivities Friday, July 7 as the Blueberry Patch celebrates its 40th anniversary with featured bands The Rosewoods and Blueberry Patch original, Dylan Cowles. As always, the Patch is BYOB and $5 a head.
There will be a “museum” set up with hundreds of articles, pictures, flyers, and newspaper clippings from the Patch’s storied history. Paint at the Patch will be going on during the anniversary celebration and the Om Circle begins at 11:11 p.m.
This article appears in Jun 29 – Jul 7, 2017.