Local and visiting trick-or-treaters and the parents of costumed, ghoulish creatures will gather downtown Friday for Pumpkinpalooza, the Greater Starkville Development Partnership’s annual fall harvest festival and its signature New South Weekends event.
The event will begin with a 6 p.m. Mississippi State University pep rally and will also feature family friendly activities, including a pumpkin patch; pumpkin- and face-painting stations; inflatables and jumpers; and plenty of downtown stops for candy-seekers.
Parents can also enjoy numerous shopping options, as many Main Street retailers will keep their doors open through the event and Starkville Community Market vendors will set up booths along the corridor. The MSU Fashion Board will also station live models in local boutique clothing stores’ windows.
The event is seen as a way to not only provide a fun, fall festival for locals, but also as a way to entice tourists traveling into town for MSU’s homecoming game against Samford University to stay and stimulate the economy an extra day, said Jennifer Prather, GSDP special events and projects coordinator.
On average, she said, the annual fall harvest festival attracts about 7,000 people to downtown Starkville.
“This is a much-anticipated event that people look forward to and plan their fall weekend travel around,” Prather said. “We get a lot of out-of-town guests, and all of our New South Weekends series give them an opportunity to experience the cool side of Starkville they might not normally see.”
Following each home football game this season, the Partnership also hosts Bulldog Brunch and Browse, a program in which retailers open their storefronts on the days they would traditionally be closed. As diners flock to downtown restaurants for brunch and lunch, they then have the opportunity to spend more money and time in the commercial corridor, Prather said.
Revenues generated Starkville’s 2 percent food and beverage tax are reinvested in numerous community and economic development efforts, including tourism initiatives the Partnership manages.
A New South Weekend event is not scheduled before Nov. 5’s game against Texas A&M, but that Sunday will feature the Partnership’s annual Christmas Open House at participating retailers and the children’s event Cookies with Santa.
The annual Citywide Tailgate is set for Nov. 18, the day before MSU plays the University of Arkansas.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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