Tupelo Gumtree Festival

TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI) – Visual and performing arts united this weekend to showcase their crafts.

The 47th Annual Gumtree Festival brought around twenty-thousand people to the Tupelo area.

They came for a day of fun and to celebrate the arts.

“I have been coming here for 40 years. I grew up coming every year it’s something that my mom and I do together,” said Sadie Gardner.

“It’s not like an arts and crafts festival,” said Lynda Hale. “You have to present your artwork and it has to be approved, and they only have so many potters, so many of each media, so you get some of the best of the best. People go and come. Some people come for five or six years, and then they take a couple of years off. So it’s like seeing old friends again when they come back.”

The festival has become a tradition for many, like Cathy Cockrell.

“When I was in the seventh grade,” said Cockrell. “I got out of (unintelligible) walked down here, and a friend and I came to the Gumtree Festival. They would start setting up Friday afternoon, and we would just, walk down to watch them set up.”

Pottery, jewelry, and art were just some of the items on display.

“I kept stopping at every booth,” said Hale.

There are plenty of things for kids to do as well.

“We built a birdhouse,” said Audrey Schipke. “They got the wood ready for us, and then they put in the nails and the screws then we hammered them, and we drilled them in.”

The festival is a way for artists to advertise.

“It helps get the word out of who I am and what I am doing. It helps with social media,” said Dawn Griffith.

It’s another year down for Gardner; she looks forward to many more.

“You see everyone from around town and folks that I don’t normally see except sometimes this is the only time I see them all year,” said Gardner.

The Gumtree Festival is held on Mother’s Day weekend each year.