NATCHEZ, Miss. – The annual Natchez Mudbug Music Festival is being replaced by a carnival that city officials are planning in May on the city-owned park lawn overlooking the Mississippi River.
Mayor Dan Gibson said festival promoter Arden Barnett is organizing the carnival. Barnett and his company Ardenland managed the Mudbug Festival that last year featured a musical lineup that included rockers Bret Michaels and Drive-By Truckers.
Meeting Tuesday with the Natchez Board of Aldermen, the mayor didn’t explain why the Mudbug Music Festival has been discontinued after being held in May the past two years at the peak of crawfish season. He did say the upcoming carnival will be more family-oriented. It’s scheduled to take place May 11, 12 and 13 on the green space at the north end of Broadway Street.
The mayor said plans are also underway for an Independence Day rodeo on the bluffside park, where the Ardenland-produced Natchez 4th of July Celebration has been held the past two years with music by Hank Williams Jr., Alabama and others on a large stage. Gibson didn’t say if the rodeo is replacing the music festival, but he did note Ardenland will be involved and that fireworks will be part of the festivities with Natchez and Vidalia putting up $10,000 for the pyrotechnical display.
While rodeo plans have not been firmed up, Gibson said dirt might be placed on the large concrete parking lot by the old Broadway Street depot for the rodeo animals to perform.
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Grand Village of the Natchez Indians
mdah.ms.gov/explore-mississippi/grand-village-natchez-indians
The Board of Aldermen agreed Tuesday to give city land to the state for further development of the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians. The Mississippi Department of Archives & History is planning to build new structures and various displays for tourists visiting the historic site on Jeff Davis Boulevard, said director Lance Harris.
The state Legislature last year appropriated $8 million for facility improvements there and at Historic Jefferson College near Natchez. Another $2 million is in appropriations that lawmakers are finalizing this week for MDAH.
As MDAH continues planning and designing the new Grand Village attractions, Natchez aldermen acceded to the agency’s request to give it two parcels of city-owned land it needs: property at the end of Jeff Davis Boulevard and a pathway that bisects the state park.
The museum and 128-acre site with Indian mounds opened in 1976.
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