The 13th Gateway to the Delta Festival will be held Saturday in Charleston.
The daylong festival, the largest such event in Tallahatchie County, will ring the Court Square area.
A fun run/walk 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 will be featured at the performance stage on the west side of the Square.
Artists, spanning a wide range of genres, will include the New Town Missionary Baptist Church Choir at 12, The Krackerjacks at 1:15, Muddy Alexander at 3, S.L.A.S.H. at 5, The Dukes of Country at 7 and Aquanet at 9.
For a full event schedule, see the ad on Page 7.
Festivalgoers are invited to bring a chair and camp out near the stage, or to enjoy the hospitality in the company of former classmates and friends at one of the numerous class reunion tents that will be situated nearby.
A car show will allow festivalgoers to get a close look at some automotive classics. Trophies will be presented to the winners in several car show categories. Car show registration is from 8-11 a.m.
Dozens of Gateway vendors will encircle Court Square Saturday, their booths laden with a veritable cornucopia of arts and crafts, specialty items and sundry other goods and services.
Food trucks will offer a wide selection of tasty treats.
From 10 a.m. until 4 p.m., a dedicated kids’ zone will be brimming with activities designed to tickle the funny bone of the young and not so young alike. There will be inflatables, games and a country petting zoo. A fee is required for some kids’ zone play, but a $15 wristband may be purchased to provide unlimited good times.
Tiny Miss, Little Miss and Little Mr. Gateway winners will be judged during a pageant that will get underway at 10:45 a.m.
Several awards will be presented at the stage. The “CAREing Heart” award presentation will begin at 10:30 a.m. The CARE “Volunteer of the Year” honor will be bestowed at 4:15 p.m. This year’s “Hometown Hero” award recipient will be recognized at 4:30.
A new “honor,” part of the inaugural Smoochin’ Scissors contest, will be disclosed at 4:45 p.m. when one of three well-known Charleston personalities, Danny Adams, John Ball Burnett or David Groner, will be asked to pucker up and kiss a pig at the Gateway stage. Part of a fundraiser for CARE, the lucky “winner” will be the person who has received the most votes in the form of money inserted into their individual donation jar or given via the mobile payment service Venmo. A $1 donation equals one vote.
A variety of Gateway-themed specialty items will be available for purchase, including T-shirts and posters, at the CARE booth directly in front of the Charleston Arts Center, just right of the stage.
Raffle tickets for a special “Split the Pot” Gateway package will be sold, with a winner drawn at 8:30 p.m.
CARE Executive Director Dana Clolinger will manage the ebb and flow of event programming.
Ping Pong Paris will be the master of ceremonies for this year’s Gateway festival.
Festivalgoers are reminded that golf carts and ATVs are strictly prohibited on Court Square unless approved in advance by the Gateway to the Delta Festival Committee.
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.
