Super Bulldog Weekend is not the only event happening this weekend. People will also be able to look at and buy art as well as listen to music and watch dances among other things, at the Cotton District Arts Festival from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. tomorrow.
Starkville Area Arts Council President Briar Jones said the purpose of the Arts Festival is to raise awareness of the arts in the Starkville and MSU communities.
“[The festival] just goes into fulfilling the arts council’s mission of promoting the essential value of the arts for the cultural, educational, social, ethnic and economic vitality of the Starkville area,” he said. “I think all of the arts venues are pretty well covered from the visual arts to musical arts. There will be theater performances and culinary arts with the Taste of Starkville.”
He said the Junior Auxiliary will have a children’s art village with children’s activities.
“Then there are also the opportunities for local children to display their art and have awards with the children’s art village,” Jones said. “There is an international village as well that touches on the ethnic components along with dance groups and performances and things of that nature.”
He said the festival will offer a great chance for people to go out and be part of an event with more than 20,000 people.
This year Cre8tive Warehouse is hosting two judged street chalk competitions.
Warehouse cofounder Carey Estes said there will be an unjudged category from 10 to 10:30 a.m. for sixth-grade-and-under students, a category for seventh through 12th graders from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. with a first place prize of a $50 gift certificate to Chalet and a category for people 18 and older.
“[The 18 and older category] is going to go from 12 to 1 [p.m.],” he said. “First place prize is $150, second place prize is a free month’s space at the Cre8tive Warehouse, which is a $75 value and third place is a ‘creative pack.'”
The sixth-grade-and-under category will be $3 to enter, the next up will be $7 and the final category will cost $15. Applications can be found at starkvillearts.org.
Estes said a secret panel will judge entries based on aesthetics, creativity and concept.
“The criteria for the drawing is open to anything, so there’s no theme or anything like that,” he said. “We’re going to announce the awards between 1:45 and 1:55 p.m.”
He said the warehouse will also be promoting for its Dirty Dodgeball Tournament on April 25 during the festival. Applications can be found at cre8tivewarehouse.com.
The arts festival will give many artists the opportunity to sell their art. Senior painting major Taylor Shaw said he will set up a booth and sell his paintings and painted goods.
“I have some crosses and some rather large scale paintings that I’m going to be trying to sell,” he said. “Some of my larger pieces are going to be around $400, and I’ve got smaller ones for probably around $65.”
George McConnell, famed for being a guitarist for Widespread Panic, and the Kudzu Kings, will headline the event at 2 p.m. with his jam based music on Col. Muldrow Avenue’s TVA stage.
McConell’s predecessor is Starkville band The Jarheads. The band will open the stage at 10 a.m.
The Jarhead’s Drummer Collen Whitten said the band played at last year’s festival and will play mostly original songs this year.
“We’ll go through most of our [own songs], possibly a couple of covers,” he said. “We’re thinking about doing a Pixies cover, and we’re thinking about doing a The Hives cover, specifically ‘Main Offender.'”
Greater Starkville Development Partnership event coordinator Tasha Hill said the Taste of Starkville, a group of local restaurants, will be selling food at the festival.
“I know the Veranda will do jambalaya, and they will do some type of rib, and they will also do the big turkey leg,” she said. “When I say ‘a taste,’ that’s just a play on words. They’re actually giving them a great portion of food.”
She said at least 25 vendors will be selling food during this year’s event.
Candy Crecink, Starkville Area Arts Council executive assistant, said there will be four shuttles from the Mississippi State University campus to the Cotton District operating throughout the day.
“[There] will be 11 different pick-up and drop-off points, and from what I understand, the shuttles will be in increments of 10 to 15 minutes at each location,” she said. “Two shuttles will operate from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., four shuttles will operate from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and two shuttles will operate from 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., so they will be constant.”