The Rare Fundraiser Where You Don't Have to Pretend You're Having Fun

Most charity events follow a familiar script. You put on clothes that are slightly too nice. You eat a chicken breast of uncertain origin. Someone with a microphone reminds you, several times, how much the cause needs you. You leave having done good and had, at best, an okay time.

Good Folk Fest has torn up that script and replaced it with live blues, food trucks and shuffleboard.

On Saturday, Oct. 17, Creative Clay brings its annual festival back to the St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club for an evening with a refreshingly simple pitch: come have a genuinely good night, and the night pays for something that matters.

The Betty Fox Band headlines from 6 to 9 p.m., which means three hours of blues under the string lights at a club that has been sliding pucks since 1924. There will be dancing. There will be shuffleboard, a sport that looks easy for exactly one turn. Mickey's Café & Organics is running a full bar, food trucks are handling the rest, and if you want to meet Fox before the show, a VIP meet and greet runs from 5 to 6 p.m.

So far, a great Saturday. Here's the part that makes it more than one.

Creative Clay has spent three decades doing something the arts world still talks about more than it practices. Since 1995, the St. Pete nonprofit has helped people with disabilities build fuller lives through art, with programs that are expressive, educational and vocational. That last word matters. These aren't craft-hour projects. Creative Clay's member artists make work people want to own, and Good Folk Fest is where you get to prove it.

The art auction features original pieces by member artists, including the Iconic Landmarks of Tampa Bay collection, which has a following among local collectors. You can browse merchandise, and member artists will draw your portrait on the spot. Which means you could leave with a likeness of yourself made by a working artist, a sentence most people never get to say.

Every ticket sold supports Creative Clay's programming, which gives artists with disabilities the studio time, instruction and opportunities that let them develop as artists rather than simply be included as a gesture. CEO Kim Dohrman frames the event as a celebration of the talent and community behind the organization. It's also a reminder that inclusion in the arts isn't funded by good intentions. It's funded by people showing up.

And this year, showing up involves a blues band, a cold drink and a shuffleboard court. Your conscience and your Saturday night have rarely been so aligned.

Good Folk Fest 2026, featuring the Betty Fox Band
St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club, 559 Mirror Lake Dr. N., St. Petersburg
When: Saturday, Oct. 17, 6–9 p.m.
VIP meet and greet: 5–6 p.m.
Also: Art auction, live portraits, shuffleboard, dancing, food trucks, full bar by Mickey's Café & Organics
Tickets: Events tab at creativeclay.org