Downtown Columbus celebrates 24th-Annual Market Street Festival

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI)- The 24th-Annual Downtown Columbus Market Street Festival wrapped up today.

People from all over the area came out to see what the city has to offer.

Downtown Columbus was full of people ready to take in the sights and sounds of Market street.

Music was loud, drinks were cold, and vendors were lined up everywhere.

It seems that The Market Street Festival brings the Friendly City closer together.

Food is hot, lines are deep, and sells are being made.

Music performances, carnival games, and jump house inflatables means there were activities for the entire family.

The Downtown Columbus Market Street Festival gives a few residents reasons to come back year after year.

“Walking around and seeing people you know, yeah, same people that you know and taking pictures and just having fun,” said festival attendees Brooklyn Buntin, Emma Ledbetter, and Kendall Caech.

“My favorite part of the whole festival is getting funnel cakes, listening to music, eating, and having a great time,” said festival attendee Christopher Richardson.

The Market Street Festival brings in people from near and far.

Golf ball artist Tim Tingle traveled two hours to the festival from central Alabama.

” I’m a retired coal miner. Worked in the mines for 36 years but now I do art shows, and I’m a wood carver, and I also carve golf balls,” said Tingle.

Tingle’s hobby of carving golf balls started about 17 years ago.

His designs range from college universities, flowers, or even turtles-he does it all.

He brought over 1,500 customized golf balls to the Market Street Festival.

“I started carving golf balls just by accident. I hit a golf ball with the lawn mower, it split open, and I saw the rubber inside, and I thought wow. I thought they had rubber bands in them, but I found out just 15 years ago they start making them with the dense rubber core, and so I hit them more on purpose to carve them a bit I’ll have a different color rubber,” said Tingle.

Despite the rain, a big crowd of people still hung around to get that extra festival time.