VIDEO: Vardaman Celebrates 44th Annual Sweet Potato Festival

VARDAMAN, Miss. (WCBI)- If you were in down town Vardaman today you may have run into a bit of a traffic jam.

On Saturday hundreds of people poured into the Calhoun County town to be a part of this year’s Sweet Potato Festival.

“We’ve been working on this since August,” said Terry Dauzate, the festival’s president.

Dauzate said Saturday’s festivities bring out the crowd, however there’s more to the festival that meets the eye.

“We have pageants Monday night, Tuesday night Wednesday night,” Dauzate, explained. “We have a church fellowship time and Thursday night, we have the main sweet potato pageant.”

Stacy Free and his wife have attended the festival for a number of years.

Free said they come back each year because they love interacting with the community and showing them what their organization is all about.

“Just get our name out there cause we bike for the children, that’s what we are,” said Free, who came out to this year’s festival. “We’re just a group of guys who love to ride bikes but we love to help kids. What better place to get our name out, there are a lot of people coming in here.”

There were more than two hundred vendors in Saturdays event. Dauzat said all of them played a major role in the fest.

“We use vendor money, the 5k run received a sponsor this year so that saved us some there but other than that we pretty much raise the money our selves,” said Dauzat.

It was Miss Mississippi’s first visit to the festival. She said she loves these types of appearances because of the importance festivals like this have in small communities.

“These events are so important to the community,” said Anne Elizabeth Buys. “They bring the community together. We see vendors from all over it’s good for local businesses, local food businesses restaurants it’s just an amazing event.”

This was Dauzat’s first year to serve as president. He said he’s looking forward to working with the festival for many years to come.

“It makes you feel good to do something good for the community,” said Dauzat. “I been fortunate to be surrounded by a great group of volunteers.”

The festival will conclude with a Sweet potato Banquet on November 11.