Mississippi Roads anchors along the beautiful gulf coast of Mississippi in the town of Biloxi for the 16th annual Mississippi Coast Coliseum Crawfish Festival.
The Mississippi Coast Coliseum Crawfish Festival used to be a one weekend event in April. But then Katrina struck the coast and everything was in doubt. Even though the Coliseum and grounds were heavily damaged they persevered and instead of folding up their tent; they decided to expand the festival to two weekends in April because the people down here needed an outlet to have some fun and get away from the stress of rebuilding after the storm. Today the event runs Thursday through Sunday for two weekends in April and it continues to grow and improve every year despite the hardships placed on the good people on the coast. http://www.mscoastcoliseum.com/
In our first story, we meet an artist who has taken the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina to showcase the strength, determination and the personal stories of the people in South Mississippi.
The exhibition is called, "Backyards & Beyond: Mississippians and Their Stories – the first year after Katrina". We will visit with those who brought us the multi-media experience, including the artist, H.C. Porter. The exhibition “experience” was two and a half years in the making and will spend at least that much time touring the nation after its premier stint at the Mississippi Arts Center in Jackson.
http://www.backyardsandbeyond.org/
Fun for the entire family awaits here at the Crawfish Festival. Fair rides, carnival games and food can be found outside on the grounds of the coliseum. Inside on the first weekend of the festival, you will find a Family Fair that benefits The Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse. Bring the kids and let them get their picture taken with Sponge Bob Square Paints and enjoy performances by the Blues Clues Team.
There’s plenty of fun, food and freebies to keep the whole family entertained for hours down here.
And speaking of fun, in our next segment we travel up to the town of Forest where some people are turning what used to be hard work into an event they truly enjoy.
The competition is called a tractor pull. In this particular pull, all of the competitors are antique tractors. The idea is to see how far you can get your tractor to pull an ever-increasing weight. And, like many other sports, it’s a friendly, although spirited game that sprang from something usually done as an occupation, plowing with a tractor. Like loggers competing at log rolling; this is a part of their job, until there’s someone on the other end of the log trying to dump you off in the river.
Only in a tractor pull, the tractors don’t ram each other or compete gladiator style. They just pull as far as they can and whoever goes the greatest distance, wins. Sort of like broad jumping in track and field, which may also have grown into a friendly test of abilities from the times when skills like that were needed in hunting and the like.
Entertainment abounds here at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum Crawfish Festival. There is a boat show on site as well as top notch entertainment on the outside stage. This year you can hear such greats as: The Guess Who, Jason Aldean, Joe Nichols, Eddie Money and The Robert Cray Band. You can buy tickets if you want a seat in the first sixteen rows of the concert or if you want to bring your lawn chairs the music is free with paid gate admission. Seeing high quality musical acts for twelve dollars, now that’s a bargain in anybody’s book.
And speaking of high quality, in our next story, we travel up to Brandon to meet a couple of guys who do quality work when it comes to customizing motorcycles.
Rumble to Brandon, MS as we look at art in a different form. Custom motorcycles are not a new trend but some may find it surprising to find a place that creates these rolling sculptures is located right here in Mississippi. One special piece is dedicated to the victims of Katrina as well as providing them with a helping hand.
http://www.oasiscycles.com/
Crawfish is what the festival is all about and there is plenty of it too. Some twenty thousand pounds of these tasty crustaceans are cooked and consumed at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum Crawfish Festival. On the second weekend, come down for the crawfish cook-off. Teams compete for two championships. One is given out by professional judges and the other is crowned by the people attending the festival. For ten dollars you can sample mudbugs from all the cooking teams and cast your vote for a champion. |
