First ‘Food & Music Festival’ held in Columbia

COLUMBIA, Miss. (WDAM) - The City of Columbia hosted the first-ever festival Saturday focusing on lots of good eats and plenty of live tunes.

The inaugural “Columbia Food & Music Festival” had about one dozen food trucks downtown and ten different live musical acts performing throughout the day.

“People want to get out, they’ve got an opportunity to go out and see it, eat something different,” said Ben Whatley, a Columbia resident who enjoyed some of the food with his family.

“I hope it does the same thing that the Christmas festival does, bring people in,” said Linda Lee, another Columbia resident.

The event was originally known as “Freedom Fest” and was held each year in July. However, after several years of bad weather at the event, organizers moved it to September.

“The Freedom Festival did very well for a couple of years, but always ran into storms and issues, so we thought we’d give Labor Day and September a try,” said Brandi Perry, a volunteer with the event.

Organizers suspended the live music for a few hours due to rain, but food vendors were able to continue selling throughout the day.

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