Last-minute preparations are being made for the 15th Gateway to the Delta Festival, scheduled for Saturday in Charleston, rain or shine.
The daylong festival, the largest such event in Tallahatchie County, will ring the Court Square area.
Car show registration beginning at 8 a.m. will precede the festival’s official opening at 10.
A community project of the Charleston Arts and Revitalization Effort (CARE), the festival is scheduled to wrap up by 11 Saturday night.
Free live musical entertainment, by artists spanning a wide range of genres, will be featured at the stage on the west side of the Square.
The festival features arts and crafts and other booths galore; children’s inflatables, games, Mayor Sedrick Smith’s choo-choo train and other activities in the Kids’ Zone; the aforementioned car show; class reunion tents; food trucks and more.
The schedule is as follows:
» 8:00-11:00 – Car show registration
» 10:00 – Official welcome by CARE Executive Director Dana Clolinger and Charleston Mayor Sedrick Smith; opening prayer by Dr. Ben Kennedy, pastor of Friendship East Baptist Church; singing of the national anthem by Patsy Roberts; and introduction of the master of ceremonies, who again this year is Ping Pong Paris
» 10:00 – Kids’ Zone opens
» 10:30 – CAREing Heart award presentation
» 11:00-12:00 – Glenda Brock Woods
» 12:30-2:00 – Brian Lee Howell as Elvis
» 2:30-3:30 – Charleston High School Tiger Marching Band
» 4:00 – Kids’ Zone closes
» 4:15 – Volunteer of the Year award presentation
» 4:30 – Hometown Hero award presentation
» 4:45 – Smoochin’ Scissors kiss the pig “winner” unveiled (will it be Jimmy Fly, Ping Pong Paris or Jon Taylor who has to pucker up for the pig?)
» 5:00-6:30 – S.L.A.S.H.
» 7:00-8:30 – Shameless All-Star Country Band
» 9:00-11:00 – The Band U.S.
For more information, visit the official website, charlestongatewayfestival.org, follow the latest event plans on Facebook at Charleston Gateway to the Delta Festival, or call the CARE organizers at 662-647-0942.
