VIDEO: 2017 Market Street Festival

COLUMBUS, Miss.(WCBI)—If you were traveling into Columbus earlier today, you may have run into a few road blocks and tons of foot traffic.

It’s been 22 years since the the first downtown Columbus Market Street Festival, and since then, the event has grown to unimaginable size.

Barbara Bigelow is the Executive Director for Columbus Main Street. She says getting an event like this together requires all hands on deck.

“One great thing about Market Street is we have a great core of volunteers that continue to come back with us each year. They do the same job each year, if you want to call it that. They take care of the same activities for us. It just makes it, I’m not going to say easy, but it make it so much better for us,” said Bigelow.

The festival had 225 arts and crafts vendors this year. “Take A Seat LLC ” vendor Rabecca Aldridge says it’s the hospitality that keeps her coming back each year.

“The people who are running the show are very well-organized and very well put together. They are very lovely to deal with, and that always takes a place in your heart when someone treats you well. They do here, they watch out for the vendors and they keep you in constant contact and they really do a great job,” said Aldridge.

Martha Griffis and her family have been coming to Market Street for five years.

“Just being out with your family, and coming to see the other people that you know, and some that you don’t know. We like the vendors, the different vendors, and we like the car show and like the crank it up,” said Griffis.

Bigelow says Market Street is something she wants to continue to be a part of for many years to come.

“At Main Street, we want to involve all the families in things that we do. It is such a wonderful family-friendly event. It’s wonderful to make preparations and bring things like this to our community. It’s also fun each year to try to come up with something different, to let the community know that we want to include everybody,” said Bigelow.