It has been my goal this year to go to a trail ride, and while the Michigan City Blues Festival in Benton County, Mississippi wasn’t exactly a trail ride, it was an outdoor southern soul show at a horse arena in rural Mississippi, and ended up being a really good time. I had not been sure I was going to attend, because it had been raining the better part of the day, and because I was not sure I could find someone willing to resell a ticket at less than the gate price of $60. But the rain ended, and someone in Marshall County was willing to sell me a ticket, so after meeting them in Holly Springs to buy the ticket, I drove over to Ashland.
Several days before, it had been announced on Facebook that the event would be moved to the Benton County Fairgrounds in Ashland, Mississippi because rain was predicted. But when I arrived at the fairgrounds, there was nothing going on. I assumed that they had had to move forward with the event at the original location of Poplar Acres, a horse arena near Michigan City, Mississippi, and sure enough, when I arrived there, I saw a huge number of cars, tents and sheriffs deputies.
The sun had not been out long enough to dry up the mud, and puddles were everywhere. The festival organizers were using four-wheelers to get around the grounds, and a Bobcat to try to keep the main road passable. But there was already a good-sized crowd present, and lots of tents set up. The smell of grilling meat was everywhere, and DJ Chad had a large group of line dancers in front of the stage.
Michigan City is just across the state line from Grand Junction, Tennessee in Hardeman County, and one of the more interesting things about the day’s show was the number of opening artists from Bolivar, which is the county seat of Hardeman County. These included Mr. Come On In, the female artist Big Bo, who premiered a new song “Wrong Train,” and her current hit “The Big Old Horse.” J Lake and Mac Khaos also appeared, before the Mississippi artist J Cenae came up with her band. She was followed by J Wonn, Mr. FPJ and finally Marcellus the Singer, whose arrival in a golf cart had caught the crowd’s attention earlier in the day.
By the time the sun went down, the crowd was at its largest, and the weather quite pleasant. Best of all, there were no fights or incidents to mar people’s good time. Just good food, fellowship and fun despite the mud.