Cottrell street music and heritage festival returns to West Point

WEST POINT, Miss. (WCBI)- The Cottrell Street Music and Heritage Festival returns to West Point.

“It was the hub of activity in the African American community from the late 1940’s to early 1980’s it had restaurants, entertainment centers, it had barbershops and a hotel at one time,” said West Point resident James Hull.

Hull and West Point Mayor Rod Bobo both lived on Cottrell Street growing up. They worked together in an effort to revitalize and restore the traditional festivities.

On Saturday, the duo held a kick off celebration to the community so people could get a feel for what’s to come.

“Just kind of a precursor to the actual festival in may and we just wanted to bring everybody out we had free food, drinks, and music and everyone’s having a great time,” said mayor Rod Bobo.

The main festival will be in May. Bobo and Hull believed bringing the festival back to life is just one way to get folks to know more history in their hometown.

“Cottrell Street has not always represented negative images it has always tried to represent positive images so for me it’s important to try and get the word out because this is where I literally came from,” said Hull.

“You don’t know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been holds true in this situation so we want to educate people there will be a symposium piece; a teaching going on at the festival so I encourage people to come out and learn a little bit about your local history,” said Bobo.

The main festival is May 6-8th 2022.