A Taste of Florida Culture

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Visitors to Billie Swamp Safari enjoy and airboat ride through the swamp.

Photo Credit: Billie Swamp Safari

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The Eatonville community celebrates the town's history and the influence of legendary auther Zora Neale Hurston.

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Flamenco dancers entertain guests at Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City.

Photo Credit: Tampa Bay & Company

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Visitors to Westgate River Ranch get a glimpse into the life of a Florida cowboy.

Photo Credit: Westgate River Ranch

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Musicians at the Folk Music Festival in White Springs entertain the crowd.

Photo Credit: Florida Department of Environmental Protection

Get to know some of Florida’s diverse cultures, and you’ll discover a heritage filled with unique foods, fun, festivals and more.

You won’t find many states that can match Florida’s cultural diversity. Come to think of it, you won’t find many countries that could match us, either. From Pensacola to the tip of Key West, you’ll discover a melting pot of nationalities and cultures. From Native Americans to the more recent residents of the famed Conch Republic, there are dozens of cultures and lifestyles you can explore.

Get to Know the Seminole Tribe of Florida

Take a Peek: Admire the traditional dancing, music and costumes when members of the Seminole Tribe gather in September near the Okalee Village for the Seminole Indian Day Celebration. Or go the less-traditional (and less time-sensitive) route with a visit to the tribe-run Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood or Tampa for games and entertainment.

Take a Closer Look: Watch the film We Seminoles at the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum at Clewiston’s Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation. Create arts and crafts, including sweet
grass baskets, beaded necklaces, wood carvings and palmetto leaf dolls, at its Living Village. Take an airboat or swamp buggy ride with Billie Swamp Safari.

Spend Some Time: At Billie Swamp Safari, you can stay the night in a chickee hut – a primitive structure with a raised floor and a palm frond roof. You’ll be without the convenience of electricity or running water, but it’s an experience that will shed some light on the lifestyle of the Seminoles who lived in this area.

Discover African-American Heritage

Take a Peek: Visit museums with a focus on African-American arts and culture. The African American Museum of the Arts in DeLand showcases works from Africa and Caribbean artifacts. Tallahassee’s John Gilmore Riley Center and Museum is dedicated to African-American history and culture, and Fort Lauderdale’s African-American Research Library and Cultural Center’s collection focuses on the experiences of people of African descent. See art come to life in the famous routines of the Marching 100 of the Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University (FAMU). Catch the marching band during home football games in Tallahassee each fall.

Take a Closer Look: Visit Eatonville, the oldest incorporated African-American community in America and the hometown of legendary novelist Zora Neale Hurston (Their Eyes Were Watching God). Celebrate the town’s history and Hurston’s influence in January at the Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities.

Spend Some Time: Through Orlando’s Florida Cultural Tours, you’ll visit Eatonville, the Orange County Regional History Museum, have lunch at soul-food diner Johnson’s and explore the Wells’ Built Museum, a former hotel where greats such as Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie and Cab Calloway stayed and performed when in Orlando. Or visit one of several African-American Cultural & Heritage Societies in the state to learn about the history of African-American people in Florida.

Experience Hispanic, Latin and Cuban Culture

Take a Peek: Experience the many flavors of the most cosmopolitan city in the South on Miami’s Ocean Drive, where lively Latin music sweeps through cafes. Or visit nearby Espanola Way, where there remains a distinct Latin flavor – one rooted when Desi Arnaz, who owned a nightclub here, started the rumba craze. Each February, Orlando hosts OLA Fest, a Latin-American film and heritage festival, which features filmmakers and poets, and stages are filled with a celebration of Latin music and dance.

Take a Closer Look: This time, it’s all about taste. In the heart of Ybor City near Tampa, the legendary Columbia Restaurant (established 1905) serves cuisine as authentic and zesty as its floorshow of Flamenco dancers (other locations include Sarasota, Clearwater and St. Augustine). At the Lincoln Road Mall in Miami, Yuca (Young Urban Cuban-Americans) features upscale Cuban cuisine – Nuevo Latino – which blends ingredients from the Caribbean and Latin America.

Spend Some Time: Visit Calle Ocho (Eighth Street), which runs through the heart of Little Havana in Miami, and you’ll think you are in Cuba. Up and down the avenue are Cuban restaurants, markets, shops and men playing dominoes. To celebrate their heritage and history, an estimated 1 million people attend the grand Calle Ocho Festival each March.

Florida's Cowboys

The heritage of Florida Crackers (pioneer cowboys) is celebrated through traditions associated with the culture. Want to see what that’s like? Try these:

• Nibble on boiled peanuts served by vendors set up along Florida’s back roads.
• Visit Florida’s pioneer lifestyle museums, including the Pioneer Florida Museum and Village in Dade City, the Immokalee Pioneer Museum, the Tallahassee Museum of History and Natural Science and the Panhandle Pioneer Settlement in Blountstown.
• Attend a folk festival such as the Old Florida Festival in Naples, Sopchoppy’s Worm Grunting Festival, the Wild Beast Feast in Gilchrist County, Pioneer Florida Days in Dade City and the Folk Music Festival in White Springs.
• At Westgate River Ranch near Lake Wales, mount up on a horse, go trap and skeet shooting, take a hayride, enjoy a cookout and glimpse the life of a Florida cowboy.
• For a serious adventure, the weeklong, 120-mile Cracker Trail Ride each year crosses the state from Bradenton to Fort Pierce.