Game day weekends are an important part of southern culture in the fall. Every football season, citizens and students of Starkville show their pride for Mississippi State University with vigor and enthusiasm.
New South Weekends are a new way the City of Starkville makes game day weekends even more special. Each weekend will include an event Friday, the home game Saturday, and Bulldog Brunch and Browse on Sundays.
MSU students are excited about this new opportunity to make Starkville a destination spot for home game weekends, giving students a chance to become closer to the residents of Starkville.
Emily West, an MSU senior landscape architecture major, said she believes New South Weekends will bring students and citizens together in a fun and friendly atmosphere. 
“I think New South Weekend events is a great way to promote a stronger sense of community and make for an overall amazing weekend,” West said.
The schedule includes the following events for Fridays, respectively: Downtown Art Walk, Bulldog Bash, unWine Downtown, Pumpkinpalooza, and Citywide Tailgate. On Sunday, there will be Bulldog Brunch and Browse. Some of these events have been hosted in Starkville before, like Pumpkinpalooza, and some are new to the town, like Bulldog Brunch and Browse.
Each event will have food and shopping deals with a majority of Starkville’s local businesses. One local business, The Pop Porium, will be at most of the New South Weekend events. 
Rosa Dalomba started The Pop Porium a year and a half ago. This will be her second fall season. Dalomba said she loves these community events hosted by the City because the events provide opportunities for her to spread her business with a myriad of people and continue to spread her unique brand across the South.
“Weekends like New South Weekends make my business—I love them. Because of my location downtown, Fridays during football season are the busiest, and I accredit this to these events,” Dalomba said. “Even Sunday is busy, and that is thanks to the events downtown, and that is what makes being a small business in Starkville so great.”
New South Weekends will not only help small businesses grow, they will also help the community become stronger and closer. Local coffee shop, 929 Coffee Bar, will also participate in a majority of the New South Weekend events. 
Jonette Shurden, the general manager at 929 Coffee Bar, said she loves participating in town events because it allows business owners to meet new people in town and connect over her favorite treats: food and coffee. Shurden believes these events are a significant part of what builds and defines a community.
“We love serving Starkville and being in the middle of all the downtown events, as well as seeing the new faces brought in for home game weekends,” Shurden said. “It’s exciting for us to get to share who we are and why specialty coffee and good food are so important to us.”
The next New South Weekend begins today through Sept. 16 with the Downtown Art Walk, Mississippi State versus Louisiana-Lafayette game and Bulldog Brunch and Browse.