Downtown Greenwood will be the place to be next weekend when Howard Street once again hosts the fourth-annual River to the Rails festival on Friday and Saturday.
As usual, this admission-free event will feature an array of food, live musical entertainment and fun activities for the whole family. The festival drew a crowd of more than 3,000 in 2007.
"We're expecting to do at least as well as we did last year and probably better," said Lise Foy, director of Main Street Greenwood.
Main Street Greenwood, the Greenwood Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Greenwood-Leflore County Chamber of Commerce are the main organizers and sponsors of the festival.
Foy said she is excited about this year's musical line-up and believes the variety of acts will help to draw a diverse crowd.
Entertainment on the Main Stage during River to the Rails will include classic rock cover band Roadhouse, Nashville musicians Thompson Ward and Mississippi bluesman Bobby Rush on Friday night; and Big T and the Family Band, country-rock group Under the Gunn and popular country act Crossin Dixon on Saturday.
"Each year we try to make it a little bigger, and this year, both of our headliners are national touring bands," said music coordinator Andy Hackleman. "As far as the opening bands go, there's country, there's blues, there's rock — there's a little bit of everything."
In addition to the Main Stage performances, a variety of local acts will appear on the Community Stage Saturday.
Among these performers will be the Bankston Show Choir, Miss MVSU Parkeshia Davis, GG's Dance Troop, Warehouse Dancers and Twirlers, Carroll County Unicycles, Kicks Studio dancers, Greenwood Community Concert Band, East Percy Street Choir, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Performance One praise dancers and Men of Zion.
At 1 p.m. Friday, contestants and invited guests will attend the annual Greenwood Miss Hospitality Pageant in The Alluvian's fourth-floor Terrace Room. The Miss Hospitality Pageant is meant to promote tourism, industry and economic development in Mississippi.
Several young ladies will be competing for a $500 scholarship and the honor of representing Leflore County at the Mississippi Miss Hospitality Pageant this summer in Hattiesburg. The winner will be crowned at 7:15 p.m. Friday on the Main Stage.
"We're very excited about our Miss Hospitality Pageant this year," said pageant director Paige Hunt. "We've got a great group of girls competing and we'd love for everybody to come out for the crowning Friday night."
On Saturday morning, dog owners are invited to strut their mutts in the annual Paws Parade. Registration will be held starting at 8 a.m. in the Staplcotn parking lot at the corner of Howard and Washington streets. The parade will begin at 9 a.m.
The theme of this year's parade is "Rock and Roll Paw of Fame," and entrants are encouraged to dress their dogs as their favorite rock stars. All participants will receive a ribbon, certificate and medallion and an original painting by Charles Chapin will be awarded to the "Best Costume."
The $15 registration fee will benefit the Leflore County Humane Society. The organization also will be selling T-shirts and will have an adoption tent set up following the parade.
At 8 a.m. Saturday, registration also will begin for the Antique Car Show, which will be held at the intersection of Howard and Washington streets. For $20, antique-car owners may enter their vehicles to compete for plaques, door prizes and gift bags.
Johnny Jones, who is organizing the event, said everyone is welcome to participate.
"It doesn't have to be an antique car — it's an open car show. Anyone can come and show their vehicle and have a good time," Jones said.
From 11 a.m. until 1 p.m., voting for the "Sweet 16" will be held. This is when festival-goers can cast a ballot to vote for their favorite 16 cars in the show. The Sweet 16 plaques will be awarded at 2:45 p.m.
Jones said there were about 20 cars in the show last year, and they expect at least that many again this year.
The Artist Village will open at 9 a.m. Saturday on Howard Street for guests to peruse throughout the day. Many regional artists will be on hand to display pieces ranging from paintings and photography to pottery and woodwork.
Participating artists will include Robin Person of Face in the Sun Custom Jewelry, Rosanne Hodges of The Rose and Coco Collection, Debbie Barron of Giggles 2 Glamour, Jesse W. Rushing, Charles Thames, Emma Pinkston, Aubrey Fall Photography, Whitney Kearney of Pleasantview Pottery, Andrew Lamb of Lamb's Photography, Robyn Jones, Tammy Jackson, Ida Higginbotham, Byron Ellen Shaw and Nikki Harmon.
While parents will enjoy the offerings in the Artist Village, children might prefer to spend their day in the Children's Area, which will include a petting zoo, train rides with Thomas the Choo Choo, a moonwalk and giant slide, an I.D. station, face painting, story time with Turnrow Book Co., a dunking booth, a duck pond, a real Greenwood fire truck and skee-ball.
Since many people will work up an appetite with all of the River to the Rails festivities, the Food Court will be open Friday evening and all day Saturday, offering classic fare such as hot dogs and pizza, Southern favorites such as barbecue and crawfish and sweet treats such as funnel cakes and sno-cones.
Local vendors will include D & P Concessions, Domino's Pizza, Honest Abe's Donuts and Spooney's.
Sodas and bottled water also will be available. Beer will be sold after 6 p.m. on Friday and after 4 p.m. on Saturday.
Additional sponsors for River to the Rails include Greenwood Leflore Hospital, Mississippi Arts Commission, Balloon Fest, Trustmark Bank, Viking Range Corp., WYMX Bob-FM, WABG, the Greenwood Commonwealth, Johnson-McAdams, Lawrence Printing and Cannon Chevrolet-Cadillac-Nissan.
For more information, contact Lise Foy at 453-7625 or mainstreetgreenwood@gmail.com or visit www.rivertotherails.com.
