Newton County residents are invited to join the festivities at the first ever Decatur Heritage Festival Saturday on Tenth Street near the East Central Alternative School.
The festival, which starts at 7:30 a.m. with a free 5k fun run, bike and walk, is being put together by a group of Decatur residents as a way to bring the community together for some good, clean fun.
“The purpose of the event is just coming back to the city and the community,” said Jabari Mapp, who came up with the idea for the Heritage Festival. “We want to find a way to bring the community together as a whole.”
Mapp said Saturday’s festival will offer a wide range of activities from inflatable bounce houses, arts and crafts vendors, live gospel and blues music and speeches by political candidates for Newton County offices.
“I’m going to give them about five minutes to speak,” he said.
However, a fun event is not the only goal of the Heritage Festival. Mapp said he remembers growing up in Decatur, when there was always some event or activity for the community to get involved. Through the festival, he said, he wants to re-ignite that community spirit.
“Growing up, there was always something to do, but that kinda dried up,” he said. “I want to find a way to make the town a better place.”
One area of improvement Mapp sees is youth involvement, and visitors to the Heritage Festival will have a chance to hear Col. Kelvin Nichols, commander of the Mississippi Army National Guard’s 168th Engineer Brigade, speak about youth involvement in the community and hear a special performance by the youth choir from Decatur M.B. Church.
Mapp said his vision for the festival is an annual coming together of civic organizations, small business owners, local officials and residents to celebrate their town and county and collectively work to make Decatur a better place to live. In fact, he said, that’s already happening with the Town of Decatur assisting with blocking the streets for the festival and multiple sponsors, including Johnson Brother’s Transport, helping to bring the event together.
“Eventually, I’d like to turn it into a charitable event,” he said, adding the festival could be used as a fundraiser for parks, youth groups or other community needs.
This year, however, Mapp said he’s just interested in getting the community to come out and celebrate their town.
For more information, including an agenda of speakers, visit the Decatur Heritage Festival on Facebook, @1st Annual Decatur Heritage Festival (A Big Family Reunion).
