The 27th Magnolia Festival concluded Saturday night at the Choctaw Event Center and the Durant Area Chamber of Commerce is pleased with the turnout and the many volunteers who made the festival happen.
The festival, that was May 29-31, has been a tradition since 1997 and it has been held every year except during COVID in 2020.
Among activities were performances by country artist Jaden Hamilton and The Voice star Bailey Rae, a movie screening of the rodeo classic 8 Seconds, more than 150 shopping vendors, a food truck city, carnival rides, turtle races and the PRCA Rodeo. There was a 5K and fun run Saturday morning and the Rotary Club also had its annual bike ride.
A veterans reception was held May 29 to honor those who have served and the speaker was U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Brad Dierlam.
This was the first Magnolia Festival for Kara Byrd, who assumed duties as chamber CEO in January, and also Chloe Hughes, who has been the chamber’s director of membership and marketing since March. Byrd said the festival went very well.
“I wish I had some data points to say exactly how many people we saw,” Byrd said. “I won’t have that until much later after we do some analytics that we’ve got people tracking for us, but for it to be the first one under mine and Chloe’s belt, I think it couldn’t have gone better.
“I know that is 100 percent due to Jennifer (Brewer). She’s got 18 years’ experience with it and we had an amazing crew of volunteers and our committee and our sponsors. I think that just all of those people pulling together is what made it so incredibly successful.”
Brewer is the chamber’s executive assistant and office manager.
Byrd recalled that she attended the festival with friends when she was in college.
“Everyone knew about the Magnolia Festival, but given the perspective of actually being behind the scenes and running it and all of the logistics that go into that definitely changed the mindset and the shift of how much work really goes into that to make it happen,” Byrd said. “So, I think it was a great festival. We’re really excited about our vendors that we had and the extra activities we added with the movie and the concert and of course, the carnival’s always a huge hit, and the food truck city. I just don’t think it could have gone any better.”
As far as any changes to the festival next year, Byrd said the Magnolia Festival committee will play it by ear.
“We really thought it was a fantastic idea to partner with the rodeo and make sure that we played off those two things and try to drive support to the PRCA rodeo that was happening,” Byrd said. “At first, we weren’t even planning to have 8 Seconds and leaning into our western heritage. That’s just something that came out of wanting to be collaborative with the community as a whole and again, something new that I think really worked well for us.
“So, we’ll see if that’s something that we want to continue in the future if the rodeo’s still falls on the same weekend as us or if there’s something different we want to try for the next year. “We’re always open to suggestions and hearing what our community wants.”
