In downtown Starkville, Mississippi, a fresh branding of the city was created seeking to shed the “old south” tradition, and create a new view of the college city’s atmosphere.
Five years ago, the Convention of Visitors Bureau under the Greater Starkville Development Partnership completed social research within the city seeking to dissolve the infamous “StarkVegas” title, and instead introduce a new brand for the city as “Historic Starkville, Mississippi’s College Town.”
As part of this initiative, “New South Weekends” was born, dedicating seven of Mississippi State University’s home football game weekends to community events, concerts and weekend-long shopping. This year’s New South Weekends set of events is set to begin Sept. 10 with a concert presented by MSU’s College of Education titled, “Mac McAnally in Concert.”
Jennifer Gregory, CEO of Starkville’s Greater Development Partnership, said the new tradition seeks to have a two-fold impact on the community.
“One impact is to create economic impact from visitors, so people who are here for the home football games will stay longer in Starkville and come up earlier too. We will have shopping, dining and all of that,” Gregory said. “The second goal is to kind of shape the perception of Starkville. Starkville has sort of suffered in the past at certain times from a negative perception. We are trying to shift that to show people Starkville is a wonderful city with tons of things to do, by showcasing the best of Starkville during these first home football game weekends.”
Most of New South Weekends’ events are free and all are open to the families, visitors, students, staff and faculty of Starkville.
Gregory said through shedding the tradition of the “old south,” this new tradition allows the community to truly embrace diversity.
“We have such a wide variety of international cultures that are here at the university,” she said. “This leads to fantastic restaurants and it’s just a really cool thing and not a lot of communities in Mississippi can say they are really diverse and that they embrace different cultures. We are definitely a high tech community. The research being done at Mississippi State is state of the art such as aerospace research with drones and things like that. So that’s why we call it the new south.” 
With an attendance of more than 60,000 people, MSU home football games bring a wide range of people from all over. Gregory said this year’s New South Weekend events will begin each Friday, whether it be in downtown or on campus.
“After a Friday event, there’s the Saturday football game and then Sunday Bulldog Brunch-n-Browse (which is special Sunday shopping),” she said. “When individuals spend the night, there is a two-night minimum stay at hotels. So they are here Friday and Saturday night, and so Sunday, if they check out at 11 a.m., they are walking past restaurant Tyler and The Grill, and all of these restaurants that are closed. We thought again this is a great way to showcase our great retailers. Our retailers have been very willing and open to do this.” 
According to Gregory, retailers will be open until 8 p.m. during the special weekends on Sunday, allowing individuals to shop on a day stores are typically closed.
“This has become such a huge event, typically we have about 10,000 people in the two blocks on Main Street,” she said. “It is very family friendly, and we actually set up a pumpkin patch right in front of our office. Even if you don’t have kids and you don’t feel like trick or treating, the stores will be open and one can shop.  It’s just a really fun atmosphere to experience.”
Pat Ramsey, owner of Occasions Gift Shop in downtown Starkville and annual participant in the home-game weekend events, said her business has always participated and the event continues to grow each year.
“It is way more people, especially during the Brunch-n-browse,” Ramsey said. “If the games are at 6 p.m., 7 p.m., or 8 p.m., we don’t have as much traffic on Saturday. On Sunday’s its crazy. I think this is something everyone is catching on to.” 
Ramsey said she knows many people who are excited for this year’s New South Weekend, considering the highly anticipated football season.
“Last year’s turn out was really huge and it just kept increasing every time we had a win,” she said. “It’s all tied to football.” 
For a list of events and further information during New South Weekends, visit Starkville.org..