Each year in early May, the City of Senatobia in northeast Mississippi closes all roads across the two square miles that make up its downtown district in preparation for a flood of some 6,000 people descending on the town for its Five Star City Fest.
The event, which grew out of a previous festival called Mayfest that began around 1994, now spans everywhere from the historic Tate County Courthouse—one of the oldest functioning courthouses in the state—to the city’s Pocket, Gabbert and Park Street parks and every individual road in between.
In 2014, city officials renamed the festival in honor of Senatobia’s nickname as the “Five Star City,” which refers to the city’s five “stars” of promoting industry, agriculture, citizenship, recreation and education.
Jamie Sowell, community development director for Senatobia Main Street and chief organizer for the festival, has watched Five Star City Fest transform downtown Senatobia over the last eight years through the tourism and contributions it brings to the city.
“Our downtown was something like 90% vacant when I took my position eight years ago,” Sowell told the Mississippi Free Press. “Then the day after we held our first Five Star City Fest, at least seven businesses called up Senatobia Main Street asking what they could do to beautify the area, whether it was painting murals on the sides of their buildings or simply improving their awnings out front.”
“Now the festival is a key part of our $19-million revitalization project for the area, which has brought in at least seven more businesses and turned what was once a vacant lot into Pocket Park,” she added.
‘Build(ing) Memories Right in Their Own Backyards’
The festival kicks off at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, May 9, with the “Not Yo Mama’s 5K Race,” so named because Five Star City Fest always takes place on Mother’s Day weekend. The race winds its way through the streets of all of the downtown district’s residential neighborhoods and offers medals for the fastest mother-and-daughter or mother-and-son running teams with a separate division for grandmother-and-grandchild teams. Residents of Senatobia’s Baddour Center, a community for adults with developmental disabilities similar to The Mustard Seed in Brandon, Miss., craft all the medals for the race by hand each year.
After the race, Senatobia’s Main Street hosts the Toby Town Throwdown cornhole tournament, which consists of a “tailgater” division for casual players and a “champion” division professional cornhole league players whose team has at least one sponsor.
Friday’s festivities also include “Carnivore’s Corner,” a backyard barbecue and steak cooking competition open for any visitor to participate, even if they have no prior experience.
“Carnivore’s Corner is a contest geared toward anyone who’s just getting started or likes to cook for fun,” Sowell said. “We get a lot of barbecue competitions around Senatobia this time of year, but we wanted to have one specifically geared toward giving the little guys a place to practice.”
Throughout the night, Five Star City Fest’s main stage will feature live music performances from Memphis Rhythm Revue, Deandre Walker and Beth Bombara.
The second day of Five Star City Fest runs from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 10. More than 100 local craft and food vendors will set up booths in Senatobia’s Gabbert Park, which will also house a children’s zone featuring bounce houses, games and other activities.
New to this year’s festival is a children’s entrepreneur market, during which 17 local children will set up booths of their own to sell handmade crafts. The goal of the market, Sowell said, is to teach children important business skills such as marketing, customer service and taxes.
Other highlights of Saturday’s festivities include the Chrome and Classic Car Show, which will feature 200 vehicles lined up all along downtown Senatobia’s Front and Main streets, and the Sycamore Arts Songwriters Showcase, which will include live performances from a number of Senatobia-based musical artists.
Five Star City Fest will close out on Saturday night with a series of live performances on the festival’s main stage from 4:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., featuring Emily Lehr and the Foxglove Fellows, Crooked Diehl and Almost Elton John.
“This festival has brought so much life and vibrancy to our town and over the years and has spurred on so much growth and economic activity,” Sowell said. “The proceeds it’s brought in fund everything from grants for our small businesses to maintaining our parks and the pine tree we’ve been using as our community Christmas tree for years. It’s also the perfect opportunity for residents to build memories right in their own backyards while letting visitors see parts of our town they might not experience just driving through.”
For more information on Five Star City Fest, call Sentatobia Main Street at 662-562-4474 or visit senatobiamainstreet.com.
