Special to The Sun-Sentinel
OAKLAND — Put Saturday, May 4, 2024, on your calendars! The Oakland Area Chamber of Commerce is hosting the annual Yalo-Ribbon Festival for the third year. The festival will be held in downtown Oakland from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. with Luanne Taylor Brooks chairing the event.
The event includes the old-fashioned and fun Oakland Cake Walk, where participants move around a set of numbers while music plays. When the music stops, a number is drawn and the person standing on the corresponding number wins a cake. Tickets for the cake walk are available at the festival. Cake walk times and the cake walk emcee will be announced soon.
“I am so honored to have been asked to chair this town’s signature event. It’s going to be such a fun day and I know I will have a lot of help to make this third one bigger and better,” Brooks said. “I am looking for volunteers so let me know if you want to help. There are committees working on things leading up to the festival and committees on-site that day which have spots that need to be filled.”
The event was started after a suggestion that Oakland add yellow ribbons to oak trees in a play off the famous song “Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree.” And since Oakland is in Yalobusha County, the name Yalo-Ribbon was coined. Businesses sport yellow ribbons on their doors, and trees in the downtown area are tied with yellow ribbons. The festival includes a Kids Zone, food trucks and vendors, music and more to be announced.
More information will become available as the date draws closer. However, anyone who is interested in being a vendor or exhibitor sponsor can contact OaklandAreaChamber@gmail.com.
