From model trains to steam engine history to a farmer’s market to a bike ride celebrating the “Father of Country Music,”a busy weekend is coming up in the Queen City starting on Friday with festivals and activities planned throughout the downtown area.
“Visitors coming to Meridian this weekend will have the opportunity to experience our rich railroad and steam works history, relish great food, local produce, music and art,” said Laura Carmichael, executive director of Visit Meridian. “We are excited to showcase our community during this weekend of Southern hospitality and family fun.”
The 20th anniversary Soulé Live Steam Festival will kick off Friday and continue on Saturday at the Mississippi Industrial Heritage Museum located at the historic Soulé Steam Feed Works, America’s last intact steam engine factory. The festival is ideal for anyone who likes old factories, seeing how things work or if they like to dabble in steam-punk.
Activities on both days are scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. and conclude at 4 p.m. at the Soulé museum, located at 1808 Fourth Street. The cost to attend the festival is $10 for adults for a one-day admission with children being admitted free on Friday and $5 on Saturday.
Organizers are expecting anywhere from 1,500 to 2,000 visitors over the two days for the event, which started as an open house back in 2003.
“Each year the number of visitors has increased,” said Executive Director Greg Hatcher. “We have visitors from 20 states each year, sometimes up to 24 states. We have out-of-state volunteers from New Hampshire, Texas, Louisiana and Alabama this year.”
Visitors to the festival can learn how things were made and how hard people worked back in the early 20th century. The museum features an impressive collection of portable and stationary steam engines, which will operate using live steam. Detailed model steam engines will be steaming up, and visitors can watch a wide variety of informative and entertaining industrial/craftsman demonstrations.
The Festival again will welcome carousel organists from around the Southeast. These folks will be playing the “Happiest Music on Earth.” Vintage Wheels Car Club’s Soulé Antique Car Show will also be on display, weather permitting.
Earth’s Bounty
Earth’s Bounty Festival will kick off bright and early at 8 a.m. Saturday morning and run until noon at Singing Brakeman Park on Front Street. It will be the last Saturday morning Earth’s Bounty for the year until the festival resumes next April. A Merry Night Market will be held on Nov. 16.
Visitors can pick up the last of the fall crops, including sweet potatoes, collard greens, turnips, pumpkins and other root vegetables. Plus, vendors will have an abundance of baked goods, home-canned goods, candles, soaps and lotions.
Shoppers and browsers at Earth’s Bounty and the annual RailFest, which will be going on next door to Singing Brakeman Park at the Meridian Railroad Museum, will get to enjoy the sounds of the live music coming from the park. Set to the take the stage at 10 a.m. are local entertainers Steve Westbrook and the Banners. Then at 1 p.m., local favorite Britt Gully is slated to perform some of his favorites from country, rockabilly and Gospel music.
Railfest
RailFest, which will crank up at 9 a.m. Saturday and will run until 3 p.m., will feature model train displays, lots of vendors and kids’ activities, said Anne McKee, executive director of the Meridian Railroad Museum. Admission to the event is free.
Attendees also will get the chance to walk through the antique rail cars located behind the museum, plus a big treat this year is a display of the Dunn Roadbuilders Locomotive, McKee said. The museum’s miniature train rides will be available for children.
“We have packed the museum inside and out with vendors from around the state and outside the state as well,” she said. “They are ready to sell, trade and barter a variety of model trains and railroad memorabilia.”
McKee said this will be only the second RailFest event since the Meridian Railroad Museum reopened.
“We are expecting around 400 people, maybe more, especially since we are partnering with Soulé Live Steam Festival and Earth’s Bounty and, of course, the weather forecast is excellent,” she said. “So railfans, come out and see the big trains and model trains as well.”
Singing Brakeman
About 80 riders have signed up to take a tour by bike of the birthplace of country music in the third annual Singing Brakeman Century Race and Ride beginning early Saturday morning, said Leslie Lee, executive director of the Jimmie Rodgers Foundation, which is presenting the event.
“It’s a great event for our city. Of the 80 riders signed up, maybe only 10 of them are from Meridian,” she said, adding the other riders are from across the state and a one is planning to come from Chicago.
The 100-mile Full Century Ride will launch at 8 a.m. from the Jimmie Rodgers Museum downtown, followed by the 62-mile Metric Century Ride at 8:30 a.m. and the 30-mile Tour Ride at 9 a.m. Those on the full ride will tour the back roads of Rodgers’ birthplace and head to Philadelphia, home to the Congress of Country Music, before circling back and ending downtown.
She said the Singing Brakeman ride differs from similar events because singers and musicians will be set up and perform live along the bike route.
“We urge people to be on the look out for bike riders this Saturday and to use extra caution when driving,” she said, especially between downtown and north Meridian, up Highway 493 and all the way to Philadelphia in the early morning, then the same routes later in the morning those riders returning.
A finish-line festival is planned on the city hall lawn to greet the riders on their return downtown, Lee said. Live music will start at 11:30 a.m. with The Palandromes taking the stage, and vendors will be available, including the Red Hot Diner Food Truck and Mitchell Distributing. The festival, set to go on until 3:30 p.m., is free to attendees.
Also on Friday night, the alternative music group, Lake Street Dive, will perform at the MSU Riley Center beginning at 7 p.m. Tickets are still available. The opening act for Lake Street Dive is Chicago-born singer-songwriter Monica Martin.
On Saturday, the Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience, located at Front Street and 22nd Avenue, will offer a Make and Take Workshop from 10 a.m. until noon. Participants will get the chance to create patriotic art featuring red, white and blue paint. The fee for the workshop is included in the price of admission to the museum.