The McComb Blues and Heritage Festival made it to the finish line on Saturday, but not without staggering a little in the middle of the day.
The sky opened up around noon. Folks who had been dancing to live music in front of the Depot Pavilion ran for cover in the depot garage.
Not everyone received the first tornado warning on their cell phones, but the second and third ones came through. The garage echoed with the familiar buzz indicating severe weather.
The wind howled, the rain turned horizontal and large orange-and-white traffic barrels glided down Main Street like ice cubes over the hood of a hot car.
Vickie Webb, president of the McComb Creative Economy Partnership, which produced the festival, said today, “It was a great day for McComb in spite of the bad weather.”
Organizers had a rain plan, she said, and deployed it as the tornado alerts sounded in close succession.
Although the pavilion is covered and performers might have been able to stay somewhat dry, the deluge was so intense it threatened the elaborate web of electronic equipment used by the sound engineer.
Webb said it was the engineer, Billy Powe, who made the call to shut down the pavilion, for both his equipment’s sake and the safety of performers and himself.
The music lineup at the Palace Theater was quickly rejiggered to include some of the acts originally scheduled for the pavilion. But there wasn’t enough time for them all and some had to be cut.
Students from Jubilee Performing Arts Center were dropped from the program, as was singer Will Gatlin.
Some of the food vendors decided to call it a day after the severe weather hit, but a hardy few stuck it out to the end.
Dunaway Concession, whose trailer was initially set up adjacent to the pavilion, sold chicken-on-a-stick, nachos and funnel cakes. They had begun to shut down when Vickie Webb came by to say that could move up the hill to Main Street if they wanted to.
Becky Dunaway said today, “It’s a big job to pick up and move — to drain the deep fryers, hook up to the truck and then relevel the trailer — but we regrouped.” They relocated across the street from the Palace Theater.
Dunaway said it turned out to be a good day. Near the end of the evening, when the Palace was filled with people enjoying the music of blues guitarist Castro “Mr. Sipp” Coleman, she sent two of her kids into the theater with trays of chicken kebabs to sell. Her creative marketing paid off.
“I’m glad we stayed,” she said.
Webb said that Powe, the sound man, felt bad about cutting the program short, and is trying to put together a “School’s Out” event in the next month featuring those performers who were cut from Saturday’s lineup.
The McComb Creative Economy Partnership will advertise that show when details are worked out.
Mayor Whitney Rawlings, who was on hand for much of the day and swayed with the music in the Palace until the end, said, “It was a great festival.”
“The weather didn’t cooperate,” he added, “but the organizers had it figured out.”
About the Palace itself, he said, “What a great place to showcase some great talent.”
“The mayor had a good time,” he said with a laugh.
Webb said this morning, “You learn from every experience and I’ve learned from this one.” One lesson is to make the call about weather on Friday afternoon instead of festival day.
The bottom line, however, is out of anyone’s hands.
“We can’t control the weather,” Webb said.
Sunday’s Enterprise-Journal mistakenly reported that next year’s Blues and Heritage Festival would take place in May. It will be the last Saturday in April.
