The first Burns Bottom Arts Festival of 2023 will be held on Friday, but it promises to be unlike those before it.
The Columbus Arts Council has partnered with the Tennessee Williams Tribute to bring the Stella Shouting Contest back for the opening festival.
The contest is a playful homage to Stella and Stanley Kowalski, characters in Tennessee Williams’ play, “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Williams was born in Columbus.
“We thought TWT and the arts council are such a good fit with being such a focal point on culture, community and what we can do to grow Columbus,” CAC Executive Director Salem Gibson said. “So, we felt like it was good to come together.”
Signup begins at 5:30 p.m. and the contest begins at 6 p.m.
There are two groups, kids (12 and under) and adults (13 and up).
The contest, traditionally held during the Tennessee Williams Tribute weekend in the fall, was postponed due to weather last year.
Now, with the new partnership, TWT is looking to make it a spring event permanently.
“We’re thinking we will make it a separate event in the spring,” said Marthalie Porter with TWT. “Because it is around (Tennessee Williams’) birthday. We were hoping to have something in connection with his birthday, so we were thinking this would be a good way to go, and give us a chance to do something else throughout the year besides just the fall festival.”
Porter said even if people are not interested in participating, they are still urged to attend.
“Even if you don’t want to sign up, you can come,” she said. “It’s important that we have a crowd to help cheer our shouters on. So the crowd plays an important part too.”
The festival and the shouting contest will both take place in Leadership Plaza, on the corner of Fifth and College streets, beside Hollyhocks.
Gibson assured people the change in scenery will not affect the character of the festival.
“We are excited to have something, not only during Pilgrimage and when everything else is going on, but to just have something that is a little bit different from the norm,” he said. “I think that a lot of people are craving something to do and to bring their families to, and we hope that this is what they pick.”
There will be a total of 12 vendors, capped due to the limited space. There will also be snow cones and chalk art in the street.
There will be live music, beginning at 7 p.m., from Ruth Etc. and The Old Memphis Kings.
The festival was started by CAC to honor the legacy of blue collar artists in the Burns Bottom area of Columbus.
“The original was to pay homage to Burns Bottom as a whole, it being a hard-working, blue collar area of Columbus. … Even with the fact that there’s now a soccer field and we’ve demoed a lot of those old homes, something needed to stay there and be relevant,” Gibson said.
“It just symbolizes where we’ve been and the people before us that worked really hard to make a living and create something for themselves.”
More to come
Friday is the first of four planned Burns Bottom Arts Festivals for the year.
The other three festivals are planned for May, October and December.
While the vendor space is capped at 12 for this one, that is not the case with the others.
“The sky’s the limit for the other three festivals,” Gibson said.
He encouraged people to support the festivals and other activities and even become involved if they so desire.
“If people in the community support what we are doing and have seen the changes and are happy with the direction, I would say the best thing (they can do) is please consider volunteering, becoming a member, supporting us through donations,” he said. “Right now, more than ever, nonprofits are hurting across the board. If we’re going to grow and make these huge changes that the community needs and desires, we’ve got to have the support.”
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VIDEO: Watch a video of the 2011 Stella Shouting Contest on YouTube at https://youtu.be/OABf3Hs40TE
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