Vardaman Community talks about importance of annual festival

VARDAMAN, Miss. (WCBI) – The Sweet Potato Capital of the world is having its 49th Annual Sweet Potato Festival this weekend.

The Town of Vardaman is celebrating its 49th annual Sweet Potato Festival this Saturday and many people are already in town to join in on the fun.

Each year thousands of people flood the streets and enjoy the food, music, and shops of the Sweet Potato Capital of the World.

Vardaman natives like Phyllis Dauzat and Lynn Hayes said they can’t wait for others to see what their hometown has to offer.

“We have so much music. We have a stage set up and music. We have a variety of stuff. Wall to wall People walking down for kids and adults young and old. babies. everybody” said Dauzat.

And Dauzat and Hayes travel over five hours to go to the festival each year but distance is a small factor when it comes to this event.

“I come here every year. I’ve been here every year because I have relatives here. I love the arts and crafts and I love the food and the people,” said Dauzat.

“I was born here my family is from here. It’s a big deal for a little town like this,” said Hayes.

Public Relations Official Jordan Inman said the festival is a big part of the town.

“The sweet potato festival is huge to our town and we had people that graduated school here that grew up here that came back for the festival and people come from states like Florida and Alabama that come to our festival to experience this and this is one of the longest running festivals in north Mississippi,” said Inman.

And Inman said without the festival the town wouldn’t be the same.

“Our town looks forward to it every year. The year we had to cancel it in 2020 for the covid pandemic it kind of brought our town down,” said Inman.

The festival is being delayed by 2 hours. The new start time is 10 o’clock, and it will end at 5.

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