Last month, when travel-guide publisher Lonely Planet released its list of the top ten “most unexpectedly exciting places to visit in the United States in 2016,” Natchez, Mississippi came in at position #2—right behind Philadelphia. Fair enough when you consider that Natchez is celebrating its three-hundredth anniversary this year. But with 320 events on Natchez’s tricentennial calendar, narrowing down when to go can be a challenge. So we called up Jennifer Ogden Combs, executive director of the Natchez Tricentennial Commission, and asked her to share her top five reasons to visit the Bluff City in the springtime.
1: “Spring wildflowers in bloom! When I was living in Los Angeles and would fly home to visit Natchez, I always drove home from the airport with the windows down so I could smell the flowers—crimson clover, phlox, honeysuckle. In April and May there’s nothing like it!”
2: “The Natchez Festival of Music. This year’s theme, Four Flags Over Natchez, features music from the four nations that have flown flags over the city—French, Spanish, British, and American. Tickets are going like crazy for the Inspirations of Glenn Ballard concert on May 7, featuring six-time Grammy Award-winner and Natchez native Glenn Ballard.”
3: In spring, we have particularly gorgeous sunsets over the Mississippi River. I tell folks to come on Thursday evenings, when the American Queen steamboat is docked. Come up to the bluffs in late afternoon and listen to the calliope as the sun goes down.”
4: “The Southern Road to Freedom [a tribute to the African American experience in Natchez presented by the Holy Family Church Gospel Choir in first-person narrative and song] because it really tells a different story against the pilgrimage backdrop.” Presented three times weekly during Natchez Spring Pilgrimage.
5: “Belles on Bikes: our annual, ladies-only bicycle ride offering various routes around Natchez. April 23.”
6: “One of our coolest, little-known events is the Great Big Yam Potatoes Old Time Music Gathering at Historic Jefferson College on May 14. It’s a totally free festival and contest dedicated to old-time fiddle music, put on by the Mississippi Fiddlers Association. One of those absolute gems that, when you discover it, you’ll never forget.”
7: “This is the time of year when all the spring produce starts to roll into the downtown farmers markets. In April and May, you can expect okra, corn, tomatoes, peas, cucumbers, eggplants, and six or seven varieties of squash.” 199 St. Catherine. (601) 442-4648.
8: “On April 9, we’re hosting our first Euro Fest Classic European auto show. We’re expecting all kinds of rare and significant European cars and motorcycles twenty-five years and older from around the southeast.”
9: “We’re having a Tea and Tombstones cemetery tour led by an anthropologist/archaeologist with a genius for local history and access to private cemeteries. He’ll lead tours visiting up to four private cemeteries, with tea and refreshments along the way. May 22 is the first date.”
10: Crustacean Celebration: “We host all kinds of outdoor food events in spring. There’s the Boiling Under the Bluff crawfish boil at Magnolia Bluffs Casino on April 2, the 20th annual Natchez Jr. Auxiliary Shrimp Boil on the Bluff on April 22, and the Claws for a Cause lobster dinner block party on May 15.”
Nothing lonely about the Natchez events calendar in April and May, in other words. More information at natchezms300.com.
