The second annual Pardon Johnny Cash Flower Pickin’ Festival takes place this weekend in various locations around town and on campus. Festivities begin Friday night at Rick’s Cafe and continue throughout the weekend, concluding Sunday afternoon at Lee Hall Auditorium.
Headlining the three day event will be Cash’s daughter, performer Rosanne Cash, on Saturday evening in downtown Starkville.
The festival was created last year in efforts to commemorate Cash’s Starkville arrest for public drunkenness in 1965. Four years after the incident, Cash penned the song “Starkville City Jail” and returned to MSU in 1970 to perform. Organizers for the event say the festival is not making light of Cash’s arrest but shows how the Man in Black eventually changed his life for the better.
Although some of the events have an admission fee, the festival’s main attraction, the downtown concert, is free to everyone with donations encouraged. Funds raised through the festival will benefit local charities.
Executive director of the festival Robbie Ward said this event is important to not only Starkville and MSU but the countless number of Cash fans worldwide.
“This event is a part of Starkville’s and Mississippi State’s culture which tells the world about the fun we can appreciate here,” Ward said. “For Cash fans all around the world, he represented redemption.[and this] festival is something that represents his life in a good way.”
A free photography exhibit detailing Cash’s life titled “CASH and Flowers” has been open this week at the Greater Starkville Development Partnership office. The office is located on East Main Street and is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The festival officially kicks off Friday at 5 p.m. with a VIP meet and greet with Cash’s daughter Kathy Cash Tittle and her husband Jimmy Tittle at Rick’s. VIP passes can be purchased for $99 at pardonjohnnycash.com or at the event. Such passes include premium concert seating, a concert T-shirt and tour of the Starkville city jail.
Following the meet and greet will be amateur karaoke at 7 p.m. with participants singing their favorite Cash tunes. Country singer and Clarksdale-native Bill Durham takes the Rick’s stage at 9 p.m. with Jordan Carter and the Real Deal following at 10 p.m. Cash tribute band Ring of Fire rounds out the first night of the event at 11 p.m. Admission for the event at Rick’s is $10.
Activities for day two of the festival starts at 8 a.m. with the inaugural Walk the Line 5k on the corner of East Main and Jackson Streets. Applications are at pardonjohnnycash.com and participants can register beginning at 7 a.m. on the day of the run for $20 at the Cadence Bank Plaza.
Following the run, the festival then moves to the State Theatre for a set of free lectures by some of Cash’s closest colleagues and friends. Cash photographer, Alan Messer will give a digital presentation of over 30 years of his work and showcase the music legend’s love of flower picking at 1:30 p.m.
Marshall Grant, former tour manager for Cash, will discuss his longtime friendship with the performer and his book “I Was There When It Happened: My Life with Johnny Cash” at 3 p.m. After speaking, Grant will conduct a book signing.
The festival’s main attraction, the outdoor concert, will take place Saturday near the intersection of Jackson and Main Streets with the stage facing the courthouse. There will also be food, crafts and other merchandise.
Music starts at 11:30 a.m. with gospel group Steady On and Bill Durham returning to the stage at 12:15 p.m.
Country artist Jordan Carter and The Real Deal from Illinois take over the stage at 1 p.m. Carter has performed alongside Jamie O’Neal, Marty Stuart and Joanne Cash.
Cousins Ming and Eugene Donkey play at 2 p.m. with their alternative country band Superstar Donkey Donkey. The Donkeys describe their music as a mix of blues, old-school country and surf. Starkville band Nash Street begins will play at 3:45 p.m.
Ring of Fire returns to take the stage at 5 p.m. The New Jersey based tribute band is led by Michael Patrick, a singer who even Cash’s daughter Kathy believes to sound like the iconic singer.
Long time friend of Cash, Billy Joe Shaver follows Nash Street at 6:15 p.m. Shaver hit stardom after penning all but one of the songs on Waylon Jennings 1973 album Honkey Tonk Heroes.
After a short charity auction at 7:30 p.m. Cash’s son-in-law Jimmy Tittle performs at 8 p.m. Tittle, who played with Merle Haggard for over five years, has released country-rock albums all over the world. Tittle’s new album All the Pretty Rubble will also be released Friday.
Headliner Rosanne Cash will round out the night with a performance at 9 p.m. Cash is a Grammy nominated country artist who has had 11 number one songs on the Billboard country chart during the ’80s. She recently appeared in her father’s bio-inspired movie “Walk the Line” and has become an author.
Cash said in a statement that although she does not participate in many other events dedicated to her father, the Starkville festival represents the ideal of redemption.
“This Starkville festival has so many elements that are just too hard to resist- the location, the history, the humor and the family. I really look forward to it,” Cash said. “There were so many difficult, even devastating, events in his life that he bore and assimilated, without blaming others. Starkville is a perfect little microcosm of that larger story.”
The second day of the festival concludes with a symbolic pardoning of the legendary singer. Daughter Rosanne Cash and close friend Marshall Grant will receive the pardon on behalf of Cash who passed away in 2003.
Day three focuses solely on the gospel music of Johnny Cash and takes place at Lee Hall Auditorium on campus for free. Nash Street will give a gospel-inspired show starting at 10 a.m. Sunday and the festival will conclude with a showing of the documentary “The Gospel Music of Johnny Cash: A Story of Faith and Redemption.”
Ward said that the festival is the only annual event that is supported by the Cash family. He said if Cash were alive, he would definitely attend.
“Johnny Cash had a sense of humor and he would appreciate what we were doing,” Ward said. “His manager told me that if Johnny Cash was alive that he would be the first person at the festival.”
Ward said there are no formal stipulations for festival attendees and wants everyone to have a great time as they remember the man in black.
“No real rules for the event.the weather should be nice and we welcome people to come out and enjoy the music and for picking flowers,” he said.
Above, friend of Johnny Cash, Billy Joe Shaver will perform as will Cash’s daughter, Grammy Award winner Rosanne Cash.