Starkville’s first Downtown Music Festival brought good times and great music to Main Street Saturday.
Hosted by the Mississippi State University Student Association, the event kicked off around 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon and the live music was playing by 5:30 p.m.
“It (festival) was almost like a Starkville version of Jubilee Jam,” sophomore Angela Fabbri said. “The choice of music was perfect for any crowd, and the way the event was set up was really neat.”
The first act to take the stage was Allstar Jam, made up of members of The Patrick Smith Band and the North Mississippi Allstars.
“I had never heard of Allstar Jam, but they definitely made a good first impression,” senior Allison Beasley said. “They got the crowd going early.”
The streets continued filling with people as the sun dropped behind the band stage, and there was no shortage of areas to find a good party spot.
“I was downtown by 6:30 p.m. and the crowd was decent,” senior Brett Mosley said. “And by 8 p.m. is was getting packed everywhere. The best spot was the Courthouse Grill balcony. It reminded me of Bourbon Street when the crowd got big.”
After Allstar Jam, Ingram Hill took the stage and continued the energy with some familiar sounding modern rock. Ingram Hill, originally from Memphis, Tenn., is no stranger to Starkville and has plenty of fans to show for it.
“I love Ingram Hill and was so glad to hear that they were going to be a part of this festival,” senior Nikki Davis said. “I’ve probably seen them a dozen times, and they always play a unique show.”
Ingram Hill was the last to perform before the headline act of Grammy-nominated country artist Pat Green. A native of Texas, Green has been on the road for six years building an extensive fan base, selling nearly 200,000 records on his own.
“Pat Green was impressive,” sophomore Chase Maxwell said. “His performance alone was worth going to the festival.”
The idea for the music festival came about after the success of last semester’s Bulldog Bash and proved to be a perfect follow-up.
“We are extremely pleased with the turnout,” SA President Parker Wiseman said. “It was great for the city, great for the MSU students and great for their relationship. I’ve grown up in Starkville, and what I saw Saturday night would have been unimaginable four or five years ago.”
Jeremy Slocum, SA director of external affairs, agreed that the event was a definite success.
“It turned out great, and I was glad to be a part of it,” Slocum said. “It (festival) should definitely be done again.”
Rick Welch, owner of Rick’s CafZ Americain, worked with Slocum throughout the process of planning and was a key factor in scoring Pat Green to headline the event.
“It couldn’t have been a better night,” Welch said. “I worked with a lot of really good people for this festival and would definitely be willing to do it all again.”
Welch said that he would estimate a crowd of nearly 3,000 by the night’s end.
“The turnout was great and we all had a lot of fun,” Welch said. “We basically only had one week to promote this because we received approval from the city right before Spring Break. The SA really worked hard to make this work and it definitely shows.”
Support for the event came from the Greater Starkville Development Partnership, Coca-Cola, Boardtown Entertainment and U.S. Smokeless Tobacco.
Pictures of the Downtown Music Festival are on the Rick’s CafZ Web site at: www.rickscafe.net.