Community comes together for Artesia Day

ARTESIA, Miss. (WCBI) – Hundreds of people gathered in Artesia this weekend to partake in some fun and fellowship.

This weekend, the town celebrated its annual “Artesia Day Festival.”

Soul-filled music to get everyone grooving, hot food off the grill, and everyone having a good time. That’s what Artesia Day is all about.

The festival has grown over the past two decades and continues to get bigger.

“It means so much to me to be able to bring joy to the people of Artesia,” said Vincent Forside.

The purpose of the festival was to bring the community together as one.

Rhonda Henry has been a vendor at Artesia Days for the past ten years and said seeing the joy on everyone’s faces is what keeps her coming out each year.

“I enjoy the people, everybody’s so friendly. The kids love them, grandparents love them, and moms and dads, you know, and I enjoy serving people. When I see a smile on that face, and our snow cone goes out, it’s amazing. It makes me feel wonderful,” said Henry.

The event has grown so much over the years that even people from neighboring cities and communities pour into the small town to get in on all of the fun.

“It means a lot they have people from that was originally from Artesia that come from out of town they bring busses in and everything. Everybody comes home and have a great time,” said Martha Boyd.

Vincent Foreside helped organize the fun-filled event.

He said last year roughly 20,000 people came out to the festival, and he’s expecting that number to grow even bigger this year.

The festival will end Sunday with a baseball game with the Artesia A’s vs. Starkville and Sessums.