Jimmie Rodger's Music Festival starts this weekend

The City of Meridian is gearing up for its longest-running Festival. The Jimmie Rodgers Music Festival is set to begin on May 7th. We hear from the Executive Director of the Jimmie rogers foundation Leslie Lee.

"We're getting ready to start the festival off on Saturday and it's going to run for eight days, Saturday till Sunday and we have something for everyone every day of the week," said Lee.

This year the festival has included some new gospel additions to the festival.

"We're trying something new with a Gospel Day. This year, we're going to do a New Orleans-style Gospel Brunch. That should be fun. The crawfish boil is going to be fantastic. We always have the talent contest and so we've got a lot of good talent for that," said Lee.

With the festival being around so long in the queen city the executive director gives her opinion on the impact the festival has on the city.

Lee said, "You know, I like to say this is our crown jewel. So the Jimmie Rodgers festival. And just it's so rich in history. This is our 69th year of it, and it brings a huge economic impact. The whole city rallies around it."

Ken Rainey, a long-time promoter of the Jimmie Rodger’s festival gives insight on the artists that will be performing.

"Well, in the Temple Theater, which is the most beautiful theater you'll ever find, in this theater. Todd Tilghman will be playing on Wednesday night, May the 11th. And in addition to Todd Tilghman on Wednesday night, there's an entire band, by the way, Randy Houser will be here on Thursday night," said Rainey.

Tickets are still available to attend the festival by visiting https://www.jimmierodgers.com/festival or calling The Temple Theatre Box Office at 601-693-5353.