This spring, DeFuniak Springs is striking a new chord with the launch of Faith Factor, a faith-based singing competition that promises more than applause. The grand prize? A $10,000 purse and a spotlight bright enough to change someone’s story.
Over a hundred years ago, on a February Saturday in 1915, a group of women gathered at the request of the mayor of DeFuniak Springs. The town needed beautification. It needed sanitation. It needed leadership.
There are places where history doesn’t sit behind glass. It walks the sidewalk at dusk. It waits on shaded porches. It gathers—still—when given the right invitation.
Lake DeFuniak has always been one of those places.
Nearly perfectly round and improbably calm, the lake has long served as both compass and common ground for DeFuniak Springs. In the late nineteenth century, it drew educators, thinkers, musicians and families from across the country for the Florida Chautauqua—an ambitious experiment in lifelong learning that once placed this small Panhandle town at the center of a national cultural movement.
Summit on the Circle returns to Lake DeFuniak April 23–26, 2026, for a spring weekend shaped by music, conversation, and the stories that connect us to place and one another. Set within the Lake DeFuniak Historic District, the second annual gathering offers thoughtfully curated experiences rooted in Southern hospitality, culture, and community—inviting guests to slow down, linger, and listen.
A film that marks the first chapter in a series that uses DeFuniak Springs as a lens on small-town America—its landscapes, its rhythms, and the community organizations that shape them.
In the heart of DeFuniak Springs, where arrivals once stepped from the train and into a season of music and welcome, Henry Park is opening a new chapter. Long a gathering place for travelers, townspeople, and musicians alike, the historic park now stands renewed—its restoration honoring both the community that shaped it and the future it continues to invite.
