A longstanding tradition for the City of Columbus, the Market Street Festival, will celebrate its 27th year, kicking off Friday.
While it is technically the 28th year, a year was lost during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have a Friday evening concert and then all day Saturday,” Main Street Columbus Executive Director Barbara Bigelow said. “The main thing I want to reiterate is that it is a fundraiser for Main Street Columbus. So that we can continue to provide the great things we do for downtown, the beautification projects, rehabilitation projects and things of that nature. That’s really the reason for the festival, to fund Main Street Columbus.”
This year’s festival is set to be as large as ever, and there are numerous vendors signed up.
“We have 220 arts and crafts vendors and around 25 food vendors,” Market Street Festival Coordinator Amber Brislin said. “We have a pretty lengthy waiting list of (vendors) waiting to get in. Of course we wish we could accommodate everyone but our festival area is only so large. While it encompasses 12 city blocks, it is chock full.”
With all of these vendors in town, it can be easy to forget the local business owners though. Bigelow wants to remind people they are here.
“The festival has tons of vendors and it’s wonderful, but we ask people to remember their downtown merchants and support them on that day as well,” Bigelow said. “Our downtown merchants are open and have great items as well on that day.”
While the vendors are key to a festival such as this, the music is equally important.
There will be two stages set up for live music on Saturday, one at Leadership Plaza on College Street and one on Main Street between City Hall and the post office.
A number of bands will perform beginning Friday night at the Columbus-Lowndes County Soccer Complex.
“Music kicks off Friday night at 6 p.m. with a local band called The Bouncing Betty, followed by a party band out of Memphis called Doctor Zarr’s Amazing Funk Monster,” Brislin said. “Friday night just really kicks off the weekend. On Saturday, we will have a variety of music from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on both of those stages.”
Some of the bands performing include: Revive Worship, Rust Bucket Roadies, Hartle Road, Suzuki Strings and Honeyboy and Boots.
Don’t worry about children getting restless though. There will be two designated areas for children’s activities.
“We have multiple children’s activities,” Brislin said. “We have two children’s activity areas, one on College Street, by the United Methodist Church, and three or four years ago, we added a second area in the grassy lot on Main Street, at the corner of Fourth Street.”
Some of the many activities available include: bumper paddle boats, duck pick up, gaming, exotic reptile and snake expo, mechanical bull, pony rides and a bounce house, just to name a few.
There will also be a hands-on art market, hosted by the Columbus Arts Council, for children. They will have the opportunity to make handmade crafts.
Other activities for the older festival goers include a superhero-themed 5k and a car show.
“We have a car show that is located on Fifth Street North,” Brislin said. “We do encourage pre registration, but you can register the day of. We also have a 5k that Saturday morning. It begins at 8 a.m. We do encourage pre registration for that, but you can register the day of beginning at 7:15 a.m.”
A key aspect that festival planners want to make sure everyone is aware of is street closures.
Streets will begin being blocked off at 6 a.m. Friday, and all of the necessary streets will be closed by 3 p.m. Friday and stay closed until the festival concludes on Saturday.
These streets include portions of Main Street, Fourth Street South, Fifth Street South, Sixth Street South and 2nd Avenue South.
“We do appreciate everyone’s, meaning business owners and folks that live in apartments, patience with us this weekend,” Brislin said.
“Don’t see it as an inconvenience, but a convenience because they’ve got a front row seat to the biggest party of the year. While they might have to walk an extra block to park their car, this is definitely worth it. We appreciate everyone’s understanding because it helps everything else we do the remainder of the year.”
History of Market Street
According to Bigelow, the Market Street Festival was the brainchild of Frank Imes, who worked at WCBI at the time.
“He actually, from what I understand, went to a festival in Tupelo with another man who worked at WCBI, Jerry Jones,” Bigelow said. “On the way back from that festival, Frank said to Jerry, ‘I want one of these in Columbus.’”
Thus Market Street was born. The first festival was held on a one block stretch of Market Street, which is now Fifth Street North, in 1996. WAR was the musical act, and performed at the Magnolia Bowl.
“Frank had the vision and wanted this for Columbus and he felt that it could grow and be a big thing, and it is the largest festival in Lowndes County now,” Bigelow said. “It is a good, positive, family friendly event.”
Throughout the years, the festival has garnered the support of many local businesses and volunteers, and Bigelow said without them it would not be possible.
“We are very fortunate to have many faithful sponsors and volunteers, without which it wouldn’t be possible,” Bigelow said. “We are fortunate to have a very strong team that has been doing this. We’ve all been working together for several years and we are proud that the festival runs really smoothly and really well.”
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