Artists come together for virtual festival

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI)- It’s pretty common to see festivals throughout the area every spring.

This has been a very uncommon spring, though.

Now, the arts you normally see at a street fair are playing on your computer.

Starkville should have used Sunday to clean-up after the Cotton District Arts Festival.

However, COVID-19 put a dent in this year’s plans and required organizers to reschedule.

The event normally has plenty of food and music.

With the coronavirus spreading through the community, a new idea to share the arts is making its way to Facebook.

“The goal is to provide online content for the public while they’re at home whether it’s for entertainment or whether its to help parents who are homeschooling their kids it really serves both purposes and at the same time helps get income into the hands of a lot of artists who’ve lost their jobs,” said Executive Director of the Starkville Area Arts Council John Bateman.

Bateman said the virtual “Stay at Home Fest” event allows artists that have been laid off, due to COVID-19, a place to play.

“A good place to start is to go to the Stay At Home Fest Ms. Facebook page. Because all of the organizations who are participating in that are creating events and posting them there and on their organizations website and in those events it’ll tell folks most of the stuff is live streaming through Facebook. There’s been a few things that have live-streamed through Instagram but to go to that Facebook page that’s really the best way because then you can sort of see what’s going on around the state,” said Bateman

“Stay at Home Fest” will continue, with the help of other area arts councils, as long as there is interest.

For the schedule of events you can click here.