Saturday, Golden Triangle artists, residents and students welcomed autumn at the annual Cotton District Arts Festival, organized by the Starkville Area Arts Council.
The Cotton District was filled with artists from all over the Golden Triangle area. Artists ranged from professionals to hobbyists and students. The festival was divided into several sections including Taste of Starkville, the Artisans’ Village, the Writers’ Village and the Children’s Village. Additionally, there were different performances and showcases, such as the international parade, the pet parade and performances from local musicians at three stages around the neighborhood.
Planning for the festival was intensive, starting almost immediately after last year’s event with the largest planning committee the event has ever seen. The committee consisted of almost 20 people from diverse backgrounds. Juliette Reid, the art council’s program coordinator, said that the festival has existed in this form since the early 2000s and has required an increasing number of people with different capabilities to make sure it runs smoothly.
“It takes a lot of people if you don’t want to lose your mind,” Reid said.
There were over 100 volunteers needed on-ground on the day of the festival. Tristan Henderson, a biological science graduate student at Mississippi State University, started his volunteer shift at 5:30 a.m.
“Volunteering at the festival was very satisfying,” Henderson said. “It was very enjoyable overall, hanging out with other volunteers and talking to people coming by. I loved it.”
Numerous countries from Starkville’s international community were represented in performances of dance, poetry and song at the south stage. At 12:30 p.m. the international parade was led around the festival by Sen. Bart Williams, an MSU alumnus.
Bonnie Renfroe, an art teacher and artist, had a booth at the festival and was the lead drummer in the international parade.
“Cotton District is good for me because I live here. It builds community,” Renfroe said. “You don’t normally see everyone out.”
Renfroe has been participating in the festival almost every year since the early 2000s. For Renfroe, the most satisfying element of the festival is seeing people’s faces, talking to them and making new connections. At her booth, a couple walked up to buy her pottery, saying that it would go next to the rooster that they had bought from her the year prior. Later, one of her students approached her booth to look at her art.
Renfroe discussed what it meant to be an art teacher in the community and participate in the festival.
“When they come to see my booth, I hope they see my love for color, my love for community — and that opens doors,” Renfroe said. “This is an experience, you know? This is a community experience. The people come once it’s a good thing. If you have a good thing, they want to be a part of it.”
Ada Fulgham, a senior architecture student at MSU, called the Cotton District the heart of Starkville, bridging the gap between the contemporary and the historic, the university campus and the town. Fulgham noted how the vibrant and convivial space created by the festival was not defined by an architect in any sort of primary way, but rather by the community.
“People can create space rather than an architect,” Fulgham said.
Looking at the scene of the festival, children with painted faces skipped around, dogs in taco costumes sat on sidewalks and people leaned out of open windows of street-side buildings to talk to those below. One could see how Fulgham’s statement was certainly true.
When asked what makes all the planning and labor worth it for the arts council, Reid said it was the fact that people show up at all. There is a year of build up to something that is not tangible until everyone gets there, and then it starts all over again.
“I think it’s what makes people stay sometimes. Art makes a community alive,” Reid said.