Market Street Festival 2012

What better way to celebrate Cinco de Mayo than with a day at the Annual Market Street Festival in downtown Columbus, Mississippi. This festival has it all - food, drink, music, handmade crafts, a section devoted to children, and best of all, fido can join the family!  

Market Street Festival began in 1996 and over the past 17 years has grown to be the largest special event and festival in Columbus, Mississippi and one of the largest in the state. Market Street Festival is held the first weekend in May each year and encompasses 12 city blocks and the Riverwalk in historic downtown Columbus. Market Street Festival has been named as a Top 20 Event in the Southeast by the Southeast Tourism Society for 14 consecutive years and has received many other prestigious awards throughout the years. A crowd of nearly 40,000 gathers each year to enjoy all the two day festival has to offer including over 250 arts, crafts and food vendors and dozens of special events, musical acts and activities such as 5K Run, Juried Arts Exhibit, Petting Zoo, Train Rides, Video Game Trailer, WCBI "Crank It Up" Car Giveaway, and Zumba in the Streets through-out the two day festival.  

We had so much fun so we have a lot of pictures to share...

Time for a break!

It was 86 degrees which doesn't sound very hot but add in the humidity factor, the hot pavement, and Kirby coat which made for a very hot dogger.  An easy fix as we headed to the children's section where we knew they had the fire truck set up for the kids and dogs to cool down.  We didn't have to ask twice as the children happily took turns holding Kirby's leash.

He wasn't getting wet enough from the spray so one of the fireman offered to wet him down which, contrary to the pictures, Kirby very much appreciated.

A   very happy wet rat!

Of course shopping is a must!  There was so much to choose from but I was lured to the metal yard sculptures.  It was hard to narrow down my choice but I decided I really liked these colorful flowers... $32.00 SOLD for $25.00!

Loved this quirky cat so I think I'm going to have to buy her next time I see her at another festival! Notice the pig next to her with the wings (when pigs fly comes to mind)...

BUT the most amazing metal sculpture has to be this charcoal grill pig!  We loved it!  Too bad we didn't have $499.00 in our pocket...

Another break for Kirby...

Then it was time to eat!  What can be better than crawfish and an ice cold beer on a hot summer day! $10.00 for a big plate of crawfish, corn on the cobb, and potatoes, enough to share.  $3.00 per beer.

We found a table under a canopy and dug in!  Yum!  My only complaint would have to be that there is no where to wash your hands so they smell like crawfish the rest of the day!

Kirby loves just about any seafood and crawfish is no exception.  I'm pretty sure he ate as much as we did!

He also enjoyed the shade under the table as he people watched and waited for any dropped food.

Being the race fans we are we had to check out these local race cars.  When we were asked if we wanted to take pictures of our dog sitting in one of the cars, we said "heck yea!"

Time for another break as we sat and listened to a band play

 Here's one of the many pictures we took of Kirby with children who wanted to pet him.

Did I mention how Market Street Festival is truly dog friendly?  There were dogs everywhere and, I'm happy to report, we never saw any poop - good pawrents!  So many people running booths generously offered dogs a cool drink of water.  We carried a water bottle for Kirby but he gladly accepted bowls of ice from kind vendors.

 It was such a fun day!  If you are ever in the area mark your calendar for this annual event!