The Beat Goes On

Now in its 26th year, the Siesta

Key drum circle is as steady and evocative as the tide. And much like the beach’s famous sand, its rhythm is just as healing.

BY HEIDI KURPIELA | CONTRIBUTOR

If you want march to a different drummer, follow the beat to the Siesta Key drum circle. These powerful percussionists greet the sunset with syncopation every Sunday. They start just before the sun slips below the horizon; some might continue until the dawn’s early light. It’s a spontaneous happening, not a paying gig. A few friends just started hitting the skins one Sunday — and made it a weekly ritual. This rhythm of life draws dancers, and they’ve made it a ritual, too. The circle gathers on Siesta Public Beach, directly south of the main pavilion between lifeguard stands 3 and 4. If that’s obtuse, don’t worry. Just park in the public lot and follow your ears.

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The Siesta spectacle has evolved over the years from a tightknit crew of like-minded locals gathering each Sunday on a private stretch of beach into a raucous, all-ages, motley crew of drummers, dancers and spectators from all over the area — many of them tourists.

A zen flock of seagulls gave no mind to the cacophony happening on the beach behind them.

Above: The white sand on Siesta Key Beach is the stuff of legends. Made of rock from the Appalachian Mountains, Siesta’s famous sugar sand is said to have therapeutic properties thanks to its nearly 100% quartz count. Regular drum circle dancer Morgan Crane credits the quartz with lifting her spirits every week. “It comes up through your feet and really does heal you,” Crane says.

Far left: A percussionist deep in the beat.

Left: Jack Cherin tucks a flower behind his ear courtesy of local flower child/surgeon Dr. Marguerite Barnett.

“The drumming and the dancing are integral to the experience,” says drum circle founder David Gittens. “The dancing is another rhythm, another brushstroke on the

“It definitely became more rambunctious,” says longtime Siesta Key resident Diana Daffner of the weekly beach exaltation. “We originally drummed at Beach Access 8 — a private part of the beach closer to the village. We got louder and bigger and some of the people in the condos complained, so we ended up getting pushed further down to the public end of the beach.” Daffner, along with David Gittens, was one of the circle’s original participants back in the late 1990s.