Our Past, Present, Future.

We believe that this brief glimpse of the past, present and future would be of interest to those not familiar with Beulahfest. We do not assume the role of historians and do not fully guarantee authenticity of the following:

After the Civil War, people bearing names such as Davis, Shelby, Fisher, Wilson, Bryant, Anderson, Hurst, Busbee, Waters, Penton, Butler, Owens, Coleman, Reeder, Mathis, and Perry came in covered wagons with little else but grim determination and the will to work hard to succeed. In 1870 these people put down their stakes and homesteaded, building their homes and farming the land.

On July 23, 1880 residents held a meeting in the center of the community with intentions to choose a name and found a village. After long and careful deliberations and because they were God loving people, they chose the name Beulah. Because of the many springs that were in existence back then, Springs was added to form the town name Beulah Springs, Florida.
Upon recognition of the founding of the community a social gather was held each year in July. Social gatherings at this time consisted of people helping each other with crops, farming, barn building accompanied with a fish fry, and fish chowder made from red fish jaws.

In January 1962 the Beulah Volunteer Fire Department was formed and a firehouse was built in 1963 on land donated by C.B. & Nettie Twilley. The firehouse burned down on June 23, 1977 and was rebuilt by members of the fire department and the community. Approximately 90% of the building materials were donated by businesses in the community and throughout Escambia County. This same building currently houses the brave men and women of today. Although the name of the community had been shorten to just Beulah, it is interesting to note that many of the original names of Beulah Springs were well represented within the department. Today only one of the original members, Chief Steve McNair, is still active in the department.

Sometime around 1985 the Volunteer Fire Department’s of Escambia County stopped knocking on residences doors asking for donations. Escambia County Commissioners opted to fund the departments from a MSBU tax. At this time the Beulah Volunteer Fire Department decided to take the monies left over from the door to door collections and have a community party in appreciation to all those that showed their support over the years. This gave birth to the Beulah Sausage Festival. The event was held on property across the street from the firehouse owned by Jim and Joyce Whaley. This open farm land brought the old time country bluegrass vibe to the event. Nashville Country music artist were now being added each year as well as crafters and food vendors. Local bands and musicians were lining up to perform for the crowds. Country music stars like Terri Clark, Blake Shelton, Blackhawk, Rascall Flatts, Taylor Swift and many others are now on the list as past performers.

Until 2007 the Beulah Sausage Festival was made a success by the gracious hospitality of Jim and Joyce Whaley. The community and the Beulah Volunteer Fire Department gratefully thank this wonderful family for the use of their land. With deep regret the event committee needed to make a change to a new venue. This was a tough decision and hard thing to do with such a great history and past on the Whaley farm. Several members within the department had basically grew up, working the festival each year on the Whaley property, but times were changing and so must the event.

For the past two years the Beulah Sausage Festival has been held at the Escambia County Equestrian Center. The move to the ECEC has provided answers to parking problems and much more space to grow. It provides a covered arena for the stage and entertainers, and covered stalls for crafters. Sausage is still provided by Thompson, and comes in two flavors. The monies raised are still largely donated to charities and others in need. Each year our goal is to raise money for those charities and provide funds needed for firefighter training and recruitment.

Just as our past and present have changed many things about our event over the years, we now must look to our future and the need for change. As you have seen with our new updated web site our name has shorten to Beulahfest. Although the name has gotten smaller the event has not. Recently we added more rides and brought you some of the biggest names in the country music industry such as Charlie Daniels, Trent Tomlinson and Joe Diffie.  Our vision for the future is to provide a variety of music genre for people of all ages and background.  Our promise is to continue to honor our patrons with the best possible event we can organize, contribute to multiple charities and organizations in need, and give our community the best possible training for our men and women of the Beulah Volunteer Fire Department.

Please give us feedback via our email on your experience with this year, or past year’s event that you attended. Tell us what you liked or didn’t like. Listed below are a few of our organizations in which we have contributed to in the past.

• Operation Troop Aid
• Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital
• Children’s Miracle Camp
• Ronald McDonald House
• Angel Tree
• Families Caring At Christmas
• First Book Of Pensacola
• Boy Scouts of America
• Tate High School FFA
• Beulah Academy of Science FFA
• Beulah Elementary School
• ARC Gateway Inc
• Florida Highway Patrol Auxiliary
• Blue Knights Law Enforcement Motorcycle Club-Chapter 26
• Red Knights Firefighter Motorcycle Club
• JR Spears Marine League
• Loaves and Fishes
• Fraternal Order of Mason’s
• Tate High Alumni FFA Rodeo
• Local Churches
• Benefit Softball Tournaments
• Youth Athletic Organizations